


Connection

by OnARomanHoliday



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies)
Genre: F/M, First Love, First Time, Kissing, Older Woman/Younger Man, Oral Sex, Torture, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-03-21 08:07:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 42,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13736700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnARomanHoliday/pseuds/OnARomanHoliday
Summary: Paradise has never been about places. It exists in moments. In connection. In flashes across time. -Victoria EricksonMinhoxOC, NewtxOC different OCs, no love triangles





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi first TMR story. Obviously this will be a bit different since it takes place during the events of the Death Cure. I will be completely honest, I have watched the movies and just started reading the first book, so a lot of things which I don’t know are from WIKI, so don’t kill me if I got the facts wrong or differently. I also have no idea about who has what subject number so that is completely made up.   
> Also as in summary this is a Minho/OC and Newt/OC (two different OCs so no love triangles) So don’t worry?  
> Anyway, I hope you will find it at least a tiny bit interesting.  
> Enjoy

_Some souls just understand each other upon meeting - N.R. Hart_

* * *

**Minho**

Days were changing into a blur. He wasn't sure what day it was. They brought him whenever they wanted to for tests, experiments, torture. Sometimes it was day sometimes it was dark outside. God, he missed his watch. He wanted to know the time, not just to actually know the time but for some sanity. Just a little bit of something. Anything.

He missed the run. He sometimes wanted to try to escape. He did a few times. It ended badly. Always. It still wouldn't get him to stop. Not ever. One of the guards told him once that he should before he would get himself killed but he spit at his feet. The thought of freedom was the only thing which kept him alive, there was no way he was giving up. This wasn't a maze with no exit. This was a building with people in a city with walls around it as far as he could tell from the little time he spend near any window, but he didn't care because he was getting out of there. He knew he was.

The first time he noticed her she was brought to the elevator by two guards with guns just like him. She didn't even glance at him, but he sneaked a peek at her. Her eyes were so tired. He figured his looked the same. He knew there were other kids. He heard the doctors, the nurses, the traitor Teresa talk about other subjects. Come to think of it. His code name, _A7_ , was often mentioned with _B5_. Aris was from group B which was full of girls so she must have been from his group as well. He didn't tell them much about individual girls there though. He only knew the ones that weren't caught by WICKED and who were saved by Vince.

When he felt her fingers against his he almost freaked and flinch. Not because it was unpleased, but because he felt so startled by feeling of someone else's hand all of the sudden. Someone, who wasn't trying to strap him down to the bed or putting a needle to his arm. Just someone….not WICKED.

He didn't dare to look at her, but from the corner of his eyes he could see she was looking in front of herself so she wouldn't draw suspicion or attention to them.

He tried to calm himself but that small touch of her fingers against his made him more excited and awake then the nightmarish experiments they made him go through. He knew she was doing it on purpose. She had to be because if she only accidentally touched him she would pull away, but she didn't. He felt her fingers move against the back of his for a moment. He gathered some courage before he reached out as well locking their fingers together.

Her chest raised a bit higher for a second as far as he could tell without fully looking at her, and they just stood like that. Oddly, just holding hands with this girl, a girl he knew only as _B5_ somehow brought him so peace. For those few moments, he knew he wasn't alone, he knew there was someone else going through the same torture he was every day, every hour, every moment of his existence in this place which was pure hell.

The elevator door opened and they instantly let go as they saw Janson walked inside with a pleased look on his face Minho wanted to punch so bad, 'Well, hello there. Another working day, isn't it?'

The girl looked away breathing hard trying to control her anger. He understood it. That bastard was enjoying it, he wanted to hurt them, he liked hurting them. Others sometimes looked like they were just doing their work. They acted as if they weren't real. As if he wasn't human maybe just because for them it was their job to find the cure or something else. But Janson was different. He liked seeing them strapped down crying in agony. He was a sick bastard.

They came to the stop and for a second he and the girl shared a look. It was brief, but the message was clear.

_You're not alone in this._

And for him it meant everything in that moment as he watched her leave with her guards. She was on the 10th floor. It meant she would be set to the fake maze. His stomach made a move as if he was going to puke remembering what it was like to be trapped inside his own head by a nightmare they made him relive or and over again. He felt sorry for her. It was ridiculous. Tomorrow, or maybe in the next hour he would be next but seeing the door close on her back made him want to switch their places. He was a pathetically sensitive shank sometimes.

He realized a pattern quite quickly. He used to run the maze his memory was the only thing which kept him alive most of the times. He knew that if they brought him out of his cell, or the room he was allowed to stay if there were no test or experiments, he would surely see her either on her way out of the tests room or in. They were always scheduled to go one after another. He figured that every three days their places would switch. He sometimes saw her coming from the test room or more like being dragged from there. It was the only time he could look at her face properly. She was probably around his age, always looking worn out from the experiments or maybe the nightmares. She always looked at him if they were walking from the opposite direction. He forgot all about the guards that were leading him in that moment.

She had short raven hair which was usually pushed behind her ears. Her skin was a few shades lighter then Alby's and a little bit darker than Winston's. It was sort of warmly brown. She was quite high and skinny from what he could tell and since she was tested as much as he was she must have been a runner. He could picture her running through the maze.

If they ever got close enough and their guards weren't in the way she would reach her fingers and stroke his ever so slightly that someone would have taken it as an accident, but he knew. He knew it was her way of showing him that they were in it together and that they needed to survive.

They moved him from the other kids ages ago, but they moved her just now. He heard the guard saying that she bit him when he was taking her into the room. He couldn't help but smirked.

'I hope it still hurts.'

It earned him a punch over the back of his head, but he didn't mind that much.

When he saw her next, it was when they were bringing him into his room and her out. She had an ugly shiner on the side of her face probably from getting hit after she bit the guard.

When she was close to him, he grabbed her hand risking getting caught, but for a moment he didn't care. He wanted her to know that he knew about the bite and he loved it. He squeezed her fingers as they dragged her away. It was only a moment. She didn't even look at him, but maybe she was just too tired from the torture.

His last simulation was possibly the worse. He literally fainted on his way to the cell. They had to carry him. He barely remembered her, but he realized she must have had a cell right next to him. He practically fainted once he got inside his cell again.

He woke up later to noises from the outside. He assumed they brought her in. He waited until the guards would be gone checking the door before he started to bang on the wall.

Nothing.

He wondered if maybe she didn't faint as well, but knocked again waiting.

It was almost a good minute later when someone knocked back. He could barely hear it. He felt like smiling for the first time in a while now and knocked at her again. Soon the knocking stopped and the girl must have fainted from the exhaustion or fallen asleep. He didn't blame her. He found himself pressing his forehead against the cold wall of his cell. He used to run the maze for hours feeling like the only person in the whole world. Yet, he never felt so lonely the way he did stuck WICKED's hands. At least he did until she stroked his fingers.

* * *

**Cora**

Survival was hard. But she did not survive ice cold maze to die just yet, even if the thought was appealing. It often crossed her mind. Maybe if she took a screw, nail, or found some scalpel on the near table the next time they will take her blood.

'This will hurt a little bit,' said the woman, and she felt like telling her to bite her.

The woman often told her that it would hurt or that it would be cold. She was a nurse. She always saw her in a light green scrubs with her brown hair tight into a ponytail or a braid. She was short. Shorter than her. She tried it once. She pushed her off easily since she was so much smaller than her, she fell backwards hit her back and head and went for a run to the guard to take his gun, but the other one electrocuted her before she got to him.

She thought she wouldn't see the nurse again, but she was doing her job the next day she saw her. She was calm and looked like it didn't bother her in the slightest.

Cora found herself feeling a little bit guilty. Just a tiny bit.

'Okay,' she mumbled for the first time. She didn't talk. She didn't think there was a point to answer the question or say anything. She wasn't there to talk, she was there to be tortured and cut until there would have been nothing left of her. She was there to be a victim of WICKED. She was there to die. One way or another.

The nurse looked at her and smiled a bit before she injected the needle and took some blood, 'All good, Cora.'

The girl blinked startled. She almost never heard her name. It was like she didn't have one anymore. Property of WICKED was all she was. _Subject_ _B5_ at best. She was silently watching the nurse for a moment unsure of what to make up of her. She didn't always work with her, but when she did Cora was glad. From all the doctors, nurses and guards. She was the only staff she was didn't mind seeing. It was better to know your devil, or not?

On her way from the room she caught up with the boy.

_A7_

She still didn't know her name. All she knew was that he looked just as damaged by the place as she felt.

They touched so often, she found herself feeling upset if they didn't. It was one thing that she had in this stupid place, the boy with eyes just as dead as hers and the nice nurse. They felt like the only thing she had left. She doubted any of her friends were alive. She hadn't seen them since she was out of the maze. She got hit over the head hard as she pushed Harriet from a Shade who got too close. She didn't wake up until she was in a different place with other girls Maria, Annie and Maya. They took her away after a while and put her into a train and then moved her next to the boy. She hated calling him _A7_ even in her head. She hoped it was a sort of rebellion against WICKED even if a small one. They weren't their dolls, toys or property. THEY WERE NOT THEIRS! They did not belong to them no matter how big was the tattoo on their backs which had _Property of WICKED_ on them.

Their eyes meet as they passed each other. Since she was walking on her know, he would know there were no simulations this time. She wondered if he saw the same thing she did. She was back in the cold maze full of ice and snow with flying bat monsters going after her expect this time, she was all alone there. Here at least she had him, his touch, the knocking and the nurse. It wasn't anything special, and yet it was enough to keep her from dying. She was sure of it.

She shivered at the thought each time.

Either way, today they would be fine. Today, they would just take some more blood and let them rest. It gave her small peace and she wondered if it gave some to him as well.

His eyes were so dark.

Their shoulders brushed a bit as they passed.

She waited for him in her room. The walls were strong but noise carried around. It was stupid to wait for him. They never spoke and they didn't actually meet, but she waited. There wasn't much else to do.

Once she heard the sound of the door.

She waited a moment before she knocked on the wall. It was like having a neighbour. It sounded stupid and pathetic, but it was what kept her sane.

He returned the knocked. She wondered if they could actually talk, but since nothing else than the knocking sound on the metal wall could be heard, and you couldn't ask a question with a knock, she let the thought go.

He knocked back. She pressed her back against the wall. She never thought she would miss the sharp cold which was always around her day and night. The air always smelled so fresh though, and she was never alone. She used to share a bed with Marie and Emily. Emily died one year after her arrival. They never found out what happened to her just that one night she got out of the bed in the middle of the night without a coat or her shoes and went into the night. They found her in the morning in the snow. It looked like she just fallen asleep or turned into a ice princess.

Cora pressed her hand against her face to cover it. She didn't know why she was thinking about it again. It was so pointless and so long ago. Maybe because she couldn't remember her face anymore. She had long red hair and freckles all over her body, but that was it. Her face was blank.

Tears fell down her face, and she couldn't make herself stop.

The boy knocked again and she forced herself to knock back. They were all they had left in a way.

* * *

**Minho**

They took more blood from him after the last experiment. He wondered how was it that no matter how many times they played with his mind, he always failed to realize it wasn't real. Was he just so stupid or they were so good? How come whenever he found himself back in the maze he couldn't remember that he already got out once?

The nurse shook her head as he started to get up from the examination table, 'No, you will get dizzy. Just wait a bit, please, Minho.'

She stopped him with her hand gently pressing into his shoulder.

He blinked. WICKED didn't ask politely. He sometimes thought that all he was was property of WICKED. He remained sitting, but he could see his guard didn't look too pleased about it. Yet, he didn't say anything. One guard today though.

He thought about the nurse. The doctor told her once or twice nurse Mitch. She was short and relatively young. Maybe not even thirty. She was the only who called him by his real name. Well, the name he remembered as being his even if it was given by WICKED as well. He will probably never know any other name so there was no point in dwelling on it. Either way, the nurse was...different. He noticed that the doctors as well as guards were nice to her as she was nice to people as well. She was nice to him. It could have been because she was so short and generally looked so non-threatening.

He didn't trust her though, not he did he like her. He took a scalpel on her once pressing it against her neck, but they caught him and beat him up a bit. She came to work in a few days with a small plaster over the spot he probably cut with the sharp tool. She didn't look upset though. She was calm and acted nice to him anyway. He wondered if maybe she just got used to it. If maybe she didn't even hope to find a cure and just wanted to do her job or really believed they were doing the right thing but torturing kids. Then why wasn't she cruel like the others? Or cold like them? Something puzzled him about her.

'Just a few more minutes,' she said calmly. He seriously didn't know what her deal was.

In the next moment the noticed through the glass the girl passing with her guard. She looked startled when she saw him still in the room, but walked closer toward him anyway.

The nurse looked over at her, 'You can sit down, Cora. Minho will be out in a few.'

She said it so casually like they were not prisoners of a terrible organization which wanted them dead to find a cure for a virus that was killing millions of people. There had to be a motive for this. People in WICKED weren't good people. They were monsters. They were shucking monsters every one of them.

The guard frowned at her, 'Are you sure they can be together in one room?'

Cora, as he just now learned her name already went to sit down on the examination room next to him while the nurse raised her brows, 'Yeah, as long as they are not naked I think it's fine.'

Both of them widened their eyes as they looked at the nurse, who chuckled, 'Just kidding. It won't take long. How is your mom, Kowalski?'

He stopped paying attention to the other three people in the room and focused a bit on Cora. He finally knew her name so he didn't have to call her _B5_ or girl or whoever. She had a name. Cora. Thomas told them all their names were given to them by some famous scientist. He wondered if the girls group got theirs like that as well.

She sat down next to him. Their eyes didn't leave each other. It was the first time he could properly look at her. She was almost as tall as him.

When she touched his palm, he felt every single hair in his body stand up. It was an odd feeling. It felt so intense to be touched by this girl. No, not girl, Cora. He reminded himself looking into her brown eyes. They seemed darker than Newt's or Thomas's with a little bit of honey in them. She had two moles on her left cheek and a small almost invisible scar on her chin. He wondered if she got it in the maze or here. He wanted to talk to her so badly. He shifted his hand and linked his fingers with hers. It was as if he felt a spark whenever they touched. Maybe it was cause he wasn't able to touch anyone who he wanted to since WICKED got him. He never realized that it was a choice or a given to be able to touch someone or be touched by who you wanted to.

He wanted to talk to her so bad, but seeing her in front of him nothing came into the mind. Nothing good, nothing was good enough to say and waste in the short moment they had left.

_Klunk, he was such an idiot!_

It was one girl and he was losing his maybe only chance to talk with her like a dumbass.

She opened her mouth to say something just as the guard spoke that they needed to go.

Her jaw shifted and he knew she wanted to punch him.

'Twice is I'm okay, three times is I'm not.'

Her eyes lightened up for a moment as she realized what he meant. He actually got off the table on his own and let her go. He instantly felt the absence of her hand.

He looked at the nurse. She was perfectly calm and smiling. Nothing out of the ordinary, but in the smallest and quickest of the moments, when his guard wasn't probably looking the smile fell and something flashed behind her eyes. It was a signal. It was something. It was as if she just put down her mask and revealed who she really was. And whoever that was, it was not an ordinary WICKED nurse.

It thrilled him almost as much meeting Cora. He felt as if for a moment he felt hope. It was foolish. He shouldn't trust anyone. Not someone from WICKED, but the look. It meant something. Whoever the hell nurse Mitch was she helped him be close to Cora and told him her name. He thought it was an accident, but now, he was pretty much sure it was on purpose. She was planning something.

Or maybe he was wrong.

Cora came to the room later and knocked at him twice.

A week later there was no knocking. When Nurse Mitch finally had a shift her eyes were a bit red and she wouldn't meet his eyes. He wanted to ask her so badly what happened, but he didn't, he was too afraid. If he would ask her, and she would answer...he didn't want to know. He already did.

He punched a guard that day and got beaten up by him and his partner. He was bleeding hard and some man came shouting at the both of them.

'Are you inside? We just lost subject _B5_!'

Later in his cell he punched the wall until his knuckles weren't bleeding. He then got to the corner of the room and actually cried. It was so pathetic and stupid and million others things, but he seriously didn't care. He felt just so impossibly exhausted. He had Cora, now he was alone again. He just wanted it to end. He just wanted it all to end. He just wanted it to end. He was so tired, and...he just...It crossed his mind.

The next day, they were keeping a close eye on him. He didn't care. Nurse Mitch sat him down on the examination table and took some samples to analyze.

It surprised him a bit when she took his hand and gave him a look full of sympathy and sad smile, 'I'm sorry about Cora.'

That was it. Nothing more, but he felt it. When she took his hands she gave him something. He didn't dare to move right away. He didn't dare to raise suspicion. Whatever she gave him could mean everything.

His heart was beating so hard he was afraid the guards could see how fast he was breathing. He came into his room, but he still waiting another half hour before he carefully went into his pocket and pulled out the little piece of paper with three sentences in it.

_Cora is alive_

_You are next_

_Do not die_

He felt like crying again, but for a completely different reason. Once he was done, he told himself, he wouldn't do it again, and swallowed the piece of paper.

* * *

**Newt**

He woke up in the night. He felt like he couldn't breathe again. It happened to him a few times now. It was some sort of anxiety which woke him up at night like someone was sitting on his chest. Crushing it, crushing him.

He got out of the car without waking Fry or Thomas up closing the door softly behind him. He didn't want them to know what he was going through. He walked a bit further from them looking at the dark night full of stars. He couldn't avoid it anymore now.

He knew the truth. He wasn't immune and with the way he was feeling lately, he knew he was infected as well.

He was passed the point of angrily punching into the sand and asking why or denying it. He had to accept it. He would have to tell his friends soon. Very soon. He didn't know how much time he had left, but it was clear the flare spread fast once you started to show the first symptoms.

Everything was so quiet. He felt as if he was the only person awake, and it was a very peaceful thought. Looking at the quiet nature around him, he felt like it would be meaningless if he died and it made him both calm and wild. Oddly, he didn't feel the same way he did when he climbed the wall of the maze that day which felt like ages ago. Then he felt devastated, sad, desperate to just…escape. Now he felt calm. He didn't feel so broken.

He brushed his face before he looked down at his necklace. He hoped he would at least get to see Minho one last time before he was gone. It was pretty much the only thing, he really hoped for anymore.

When he returned to the car Thomas stirred a bit. He wasn't fully awake maybe he wouldn't even remember talking to him.

'Are you okay?'

'Yeah, go back to sleep, Tommy.'

'We're going to save him, Newt.'

'I know.'

Bloody optimist.

* * *

**Claudia**

There was a time when she almost thought about making a mistake. It seemed so surreal. The first time she did it. She kept on shaking all day in work, or she thought she was shaking. No one noticed though. Everyone was walking around like nothing happened. They brought her the boy. She went over the plan again and again in her mind but it still felt as if she was dreaming. She took some sample before he would go to the simulation. No one stopped her. No one noticed a single thing.

Not one _little_ thing out of place.

She waited. She was supposed to have a lunch break but her stomach felt all wrong so she didn't even eat. No one noticed again. It was almost insane how much people could hide from one another. Even treason.

One of her colleague came to the room and told them. It wasn't anything special. Another subject died. They were disappointed, some even sad, but in the end they all returned to their shift, to their stations to their work.

They took the boy downstairs. He wasn't the first subject to die. She got him out of the building like he didn't use to be the most precious belonging of WICKED and into her apartment. He was out behind the walls with the rebels within little less than a month. No one stopped her. No one noticed.

So she did it again, and again. Her total count was fifteen. Fifteen kids she just took away from them without anyone noticing.

She sometimes thought about making a mistake. Just so she would see if someone would notice or play along.

Claudia shook the thought away. She was being cocky.

She went to have a cigarette outside. She rarely did it. But tonight she felt like she should. It was going to be too close. She felt like somehow things were pushed to the limits. Like somehow she missed something and something was happening.

She put the cigarette out and climbed back to her apartment. It was a small one with one bedroom. She used the live with her uncle. Now, she lived alone. It was that way for many others. They used to have someone, now they didn't. It was just another way to ignore the word _death_.

She went downstairs to the laundry room. There was a backdoor. She had everything timed. People were creatures of habits. The security guard in her building liked to smoke as well. She waited until he went on another one of his breaks.

The man on the other end knocked. He worked for the WICKED. When someone died and his body couldn't be used anymore they cremated him. Subjects, even the useful ones couldn't donate blood anymore.

She smirked at that. Donate. Yeah, right. More like couldn't be robed of their blood anymore since it was contaminated once they died.

The man, Charlie, helped her put the large bag into the small elevator for laundry baskets. She gave him another dose.

'Thanks, doc.'

It was a running joke among them. Among the traitors. She didn't mind maybe it would even work to her favour if they would be looking for a doctor not a nurse. She wasn't naive though. She knew that if someone found out about any of the things she had done. They would track her down relatively quickly. She made mistakes here there. Maybe no one noticed before, but if they caught a sense of something, they would remember, realize, put pieces together and just know.

They nodded and parted. They didn't have time for talking and there wasn't anything to say anyway.

She went upstairs and greeted Tom, the guard who returned from his smoke break. She went to her apartment and locked the door.

The elevator had already brought the black bag up.

She walked toward it and pulled it out. It was heavy, but she was used to it. She quickly opened the bag and checked the pulse. There was none.

She left a needle on her kitchen counter. She took it and stabbed Cora into the chest. It took a while, but Claudia was so over the fear of not getting one of them to wake up.

At least Cora didn't wake up with a scream. She just gasped as she breathing in for the first time out half way to freedom.


	2. Chapter 2

_Alone_

_Yes, that's the key word, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn't hold a candle to it and hell is only a poor synonym – Stephen King_

* * *

**Claudia**

Claudia was used to having "guests" in her apartment by now. It was simple. She had done it so many times now, there was not much that would really surprised her anymore, or so she thought. Everyone was different, yet they seemed to react the same way. They were screaming, crying, confused, and they often didn't believe it was real. They thought she was lying, or it was another trick to hurt them. They were violent at times, but luckily she was always prepared for that as well.

Cora woke up the next day, the same way many of the kids did. She screamed.

Claudia rushed to her side. She had the broadcast loud enough to block any other noise in the room. She did this before too many times. It was always the same almost mechanic female voice assuring everyone that WICKED was working on finding a cure. That WICKED was the only organization they could trust.

_WICKED is good._

She put her hands on Cora. She was even used to them being violent at first. She guessed Cora would be too. She did push her to the ground when she tried to escape a few weeks back.

Claudia made her look at her pulling her hands away from her face as the girl was crying and sobbing.

'Okay, Cora? Do you want a shot? I can give you a shot or you have to calm down on your own. Do you understand? If you continue to make noise someone will hear you and find you here, do you hear me?'

The teenager nodded still crying. She was having a panic attack. Claudia didn't ask her again. She pushed her against her right arm while she pulled the lit out of the needle. In the next few moments Cora's breathing calmed down. She pushed herself completely into Claudia's arm.

The woman put the used needle aside and brushed her back, 'Its fine. You are fine now.'

Cora was asleep within the next few minutes and Claudia tucked her back to her bed. Cora was still holding onto her hand until she was completely asleep. She looked so ordinary. The WICKED told them over and over again about how special they were. That they couldn't be taken as kids, or teenagers not really. They were means that they needed and could, have and must used in order to find the cure. They weren't humans to them, they weren't kids, they weren't anything. They were special. _Special_ in this world meant that you could be taken and used against your will, tested on, tortured and killed for the greater good. No being _special_ to WICKED was a very scary thing. She learned that a long time ago.

Claudia sighed as she watched the girl. She would have to go to sleep at least for a few hours. Someone would have asked why she was so tired and what did she do in the night. She sighed and went to the living room. She was used to this. She was used to kids freaking out when they woke up not trusting anyone especially her. She worked in WICKED. She looked at the ceiling. She remembered when she first started there. They gave them all a nice tour, they taught them everything imaginable. Despite the urgency and importance of their task to find the cure they were all so nice and sounded so right. They told all the right things for people to believe them, to feel less guilty about what they were all doing. They basically brainwashed them or forced them into submission because the truth made them too much of monsters and that hurt too much for their liking. No one wanted to be accused of being a monster even when they knew deep down they there were just that. Monsters.

It felt like she just closed her eyes for a second, but when she opened them again, she found someone lying by her sofa.

Claudia stirred away looking down at the sleeping girl before she carefully touched her shoulder. She didn't wake up. She was obviously still asleep which made Claudia think that the girl was sleepwalking. She got out of the sofa to check her a bit. She really was asleep.

The brunette sighed and brushed her face a bit before she put a blanket over the girl and sat down next to her. She had a feeling Cora would be a troublemaker, and _boy_ was she right.

The next time Cora woke up, it was slow. She didn't remember leaving the bed, but she managed to sleep through the night. Claudia slowly helped her into the kitchen. She could tell the teenage girl felt a bit unsteady.

The woman sat her down.

'Okay,' she told her as she made her breakfast. She made her just something small because she didn't have too many grocery points in the first place, (She lived alone.) and she did not want her to get sick. Cora was silent the whole time. She was not crying, but she was too silent. It was not always good. It made Claudia cautious. She still didn't know how she woke up with the sedatives in her system. She had boys taller and bigger than the skinny raven haired girl there and they not once woke up after a shot.

'Is there something you want to ask me? You can ask,' said the nurse. The raven haired girl looked up at her, 'Is this real?' It made her momentary sick how often did they ask that.

'Yes. But if you want proof think back to the simulations. Are they always the same?' she asked and watched as Cora thought about it, 'Yeah, but maybe this is a dream.'

She looked up at her. Cora might have put on a though front, but she could tell she was just as broken as every kid she got out. That was the thing about all those kids in WICKED. They were never taken as kids, they were subject. They needed to defend themselves, survive on their own, live as adults. Since they grew used to it and didn't remember a time when they had someone else take care of them, they mostly pushed the feeling away, but they still... wished that they did have...it was like small voice in the back of their minds hoping someone would come and take care of them. It wasn't true what they said. You could miss even things you never had, or didn't remember having as far as Claudia was concerned.

She nodded, 'Well. You can pinch yourself or maybe try that tea. You cannot taste anything in a dream.'

The girl looked like she thought about it for a moment before she drank from the white mug.

'Alright, so you what kidnap us from WICKED? Can I leave?'

Claudia explained everything to her. She started to take kids about two years ago. She told her about how she knew people behind the walls who got them out and then to safety as well as some people who worked for her or with her when she needed to get them to from WICKED. She explained how she got her and the others out, and that she would soon leave like they always do.

It was always the same story. Claudia would come to the shift. Before every stimulation the subjects got a shot of sedatives along with some vitamins and of course beta blockers she put there herself. It takes a moment. First the sedative and vitamins kick in and once they are deep in the simulation all it takes is for their increase their heartbeat to some higher rare and the beta blockers kick in causing what looks like a heart failure. It happens all the time, so the doctors and all the staff are used to it by now. Charlie, who works in the cremation room. They didn't often cremate just subject, but also people who caught flare behind the walls. It didn't happen so often, but it was often enough. She wasn't sure how he faked the cremation but he always managed to get the body out and bring it to her without anyone noticing. She would give him a dose of the serum they had so far created for every kid, he brought her. It was beneficial for his as it was for her. He didn't know that the kids were alive and if the did he never questioned it. Everyone knew there was a black market with fake or incomplete cure around. People would always find ways to compromise even the happiest of the worlds even if this one wasn't happy at all. She kept the kid inside her apartment for a few days before she would go to the near bakery to arrange for a meeting. The woman, Marta and her son, Diego were the ones who would get the message behind the walls so someone from the rebel's would meet her. She would meet them and with the kid and let them take it with another dose of the pre-cure which she either secretly made in her spare time. They weren't good, and the people that took them knew it, but they still did. One, two days were better than nothing. So far the best one was barely over a month. It was ridiculous what they let those kids die for. Twenty-eight days.

Either way, that was her second job. So far she had fifteen guests in her apartment with Cora being the sixteenth one. She got them all out and never heard or saw them again. She never asked about them and even if Gally or Tobias or whoever came from behind he walls asked if she wanted to she declined. She didn't want to hear or think about them as if she was their mother or saviour. She wasn't noble or good of a person. No matter how many kids she would help out it would never erase what was done. It would never erase that she worked for WICKED or that thousands if not more of others had die.

The nurse waited. She thought it was good to let them process everything which she just told her. It gave her some time to think as well. She would have to arrange a meeting so that they could take Cora from the city.

'Wait,' said suddenly Cora frowning, 'what happens once I am out?'

Claudia was quiet for a moment before she said, 'They get you out from WICKED.'

'So you don't know what happens next, if I stay with them or go elsewhere?' asked Cora and Claudia could already tell she wouldn't cooperate.

'No, I don't, but does it matter. Isn't anywhere better than here? Look, I know those people. They don't hurt you. Living there can't be worse than having to be tortured every day at WICKED.'

Cora was silent for a moment, but Claudia knew better than to expect her to cooperate. She already had a hunch that the girl would be stubborn and cause problems.

'But I can't leave with Minho.'

It really shouldn't catch Claudia off guard when the girl said it. It really shouldn't, but it was really the first time any of the teen she had in her apartment thought about some other kid which was inside WICKED. It made her like Cora more and at the same time grew annoyed with her. She would definitely cause her more trouble in the near future.

She should have said no. She was planning to take him in a few weeks anyway, but she under no circumstances wanted two teens under her roof. That was out of the question.

She really should have said no. But in the end she was glad she didn't.

* * *

**Minho**

He couldn't sleep at night. Sleeping in his small cell was never a pleasant experience. In the Glade he grew used to waking up bright early so he could prepare himself before he would run off to the maze. The habit remained as he still found himself waking up quite early even though he was just in his cell and he couldn't go out or do anything until the time for his test or simulations came. Now, however, it was worse. He couldn't sleep at all. It was ten day as far as he could tell that Nurse Mitch gave him the message and so far nothing happened. He didn't understand it. Why didn't she just...Gosh, he knew he was impatient, but this was so much worse. He felt like he couldn't stay in one place. He felt like a lunatic when he knocked on the wall. He knew he wouldn't get a reply but still.

He sat up and pressed his hand against the cold wall. He missed her. He missed everyone. He missed Thomas, Newt, Frypan, strangely even Brenda and Jorge. He missed people. He missed talking to someone, anyone or just...having something, someone.

* * *

**Cora**

She continued to walk around the apartment for over two hours. She didn't really know what to do. She tried to sit around, but she felt like she could finally walk on her own at least for a bit she wanted to use it to the fullest even though nurse's apartment was small. She walked over to the kitchen counter from the living room, then to the bathroom, though the small hallway to the bedroom and repeated the action. She should have grown old with it, but she seriously couldn't. She couldn't stop. She had a feeling that if she stopped moving she would realize it wasn't real. She couldn't do much else. The nurse watched her not to turn on the broadcast, open the curtains or _God_ forbid walk out. She wondered if she was really planning to help her out. If this wasn't just some trap, but what would be the point? A new test? A new variable? Maybe…maybe it would make sense. They were testing them. Maybe it was all a trick. She didn't know the nurse. She was WICKED.

She stopped abruptly. She started to wonder if her death in WICKED meant that someone else got her spot. Did they torture Minho more? Did they drag some other girl into her cell? No, they had her because she was the best. Because she had the best results, because she could help them get their blueprints and the cure. She didn't want anyone someone else to her horrors. They were already experiencing them when they were inside WICKED. Well, maybe Janson, but the man was pure evil as far as she could tell.

Cora broke down and pushed her fingers through her hair scratching her scalp. She wanted to feel some pain. She wanted to feel something for a moment. Something which was hers not owned by WICKED.

She breathed out and looked around the room. It was so damn quiet. No one was around. She was the only one there. In WICKED she could at least knocked on that stupid wall.

* * *

**Claudia**

Living with Cora was…different. She had girls in the apartment before, but Cora was different. She was older than the rest. Both her and Minho were the oldest subjects yet as far as she knew. The raven haired girl would rarely sit around and spent most of the time standing or walking around which was getting on Claudia's nerve until she found out that Cora felt that her hands were shaking whenever she was still. It had to be a side effect of the torture she went though. She told her a bit about her life during the trials in the Maze. She accepted that perhaps everyone from her maze was already gone or death. Perhaps that was why she was so strongly linked to Minho. They were the only subject from groups A and B left in the city and in general in WICKED's hands as far as she could tell. The rest were already used or gone. Cora was deeply traumatized like all the other guest Claudia had in her apartment. She would wake up in the middle of the night startled not knowing if things were real or not. She would then walk around the apartment for almost an hour until she would be ready to try sleep again. She asked Claudia on the second day of her stay if she could sleep with her in the bed looking oddly embarrassed. She explained that in the Maze there were very cold nights to the girls used to sleep in the same rooms and bed. This was what she hated in the cell the most. The quiet which came with not having anyone around. She was really bending the rules for the girl. She seemed to hate the city food which she didn't blame her for. It was basically bioengineered since everyone was too afraid to eat anything which didn't grow in the city, and the natural food wasn't enough for everyone. Not to mention Claudia was only allowed to have anyone food for one person since she lived alone.

As opposite to Cora's stories about the maze, Claudia told the girl in basics about the life in the city. Everything was watched and guard. If someone looked or felt sick, he needed to immediately turn himself in or kill himself.

'Wait, so people just kill themselves?' she asked startled by the thought. Claudia shrugged her shoulders as she made them both coffee in the morning just a half a mug for both to save some for another day. The girl didn't eat a lot, but if Minho actually came she wasn't sure they wouldn't be starving a bit, 'It is better than to hurt your loved ones, or worse spread the flare within the walls.'

'Would you do that?' asked Cora looking like she processed the thought. The nurse nodded, 'Of course.'

'Did he do that?' asked the teen, and pointed at the small cross she had around her neck. She had it for a very long time. She was surprised that her uncle never tried to sell it for some food or money. People could hold on the strangest of things. She was also surprised she told Cora about her uncle in the first place. She didn't remember any parents just uncle Bobby. She lived with him and Ethan all her life until they boy was found immune and taken and Bobby got the flare.

'You said you used to live with an uncle and that he gave you the cross.'

Claudia instinctively took the small cross between her fingers, 'Yeah. He did. It was the right thing to do.'

'Couldn't he have taken the serum? It works for a while, doesn't it?' asked Cora confused. Claudia looked at her with her eyes a bit dead in the moment. She really didn't want to talk or think about Bobby, but she had a feeling the teen wouldn't let it go, or think the worse. She was a bit masochist too.

'They don't give serums for free, you know. We look for the cure for the higher good of everyone,' she said the second sentence feeling like she was one of WICKED's brainwashers spreading their propaganda.

Cora seemed to notice too because she went incredibly pale.

They didn't talk about it afterwards, but Claudia had a feeling Cora understood. She didn't have any serums then, and still her uncle wasn't the type that would take one. He was the type that would kill himself just so he didn't have to be a burden to anyone.

It was midnight on the fourteenth day that Cora lived with Claudia, that the nurse looked over at the sleeping girl. She stopped waking up at night, or more like stopped panicking. She usually woke up because Claudia felt the bed move. But she would just reach out and touch her hand, sit up and look at her, or sometimes just stay still probably listening to her breathing. Once she knew she wasn't alone, she would lie back down and fall back to sleep.

She hoped she would get better and one day enough not to wake up at all startled and confused, but in a world where people's screams couldn't be heard over the chanting of others. She couldn't ask for such things.

Stroking her hair a bit to the side she whispered, 'I will bring him tomorrow. Wear something pretty.'

'For Minho? No way,' replied the girl, she thought was asleep. Claudia chuckled at that and fallen back asleep.

* * *

**Minho**

He was completely losing it now. It had been days, weeks since the note and yet the nurse was ignoring him. She didn't give him any sign, and as stupid as it sounded and crazy…he actually started to think that maybe just maybe he made it all up. Maybe there was no note and Cora was dead. Maybe he had lost it and his mind made up this story that Cora was alive and he would be rescued soon or worse maybe the note was another trick from the WICKED so he wouldn't try to hurt himself or escape on his own. He didn't really know what was happening. He tried to look into the nurse's eyes to see it. Just a hint, just one wink or something to tell him that it was real. That… just something. He felt so stressed he grabbed her wrist one day startling her as she was finishing him up ready to leave. He looked her into the eyes, but no words came out. He couldn't ask her. What if…he just couldn't ask her and risk it all even if he wasn't sure it was real anymore.

'Hey, let her go,' said the guard one of his hands already on the taser.

He was gripping her wrist way too tight and he could she would have a bruise later, but he needed to somehow know, 'It's fine, Carter. Minho, please let me go. It hurts.'

Nothing, not one single flinch or hint. She was completely calm without any flaw in her act which in a way was his hint.

He let her go. She massaged her hand while the guard took him from the examination room. He probably had a thing for the nurse because he punched him in the face before he put him into his cell and pressed his elbow against his neck as he smashed him against the wall, 'Do that again, and you are dead, kid.'

He saw the look in his face. The guard wouldn't mind to hurt him. Whatever he was made off was the same as Janson. They didn't mind to torture them a bit.

Once in his cell, he finally calmed down reminding himself of what happened in the room. The nurse was completely calm. She didn't flinch and with the way her chest was moving he could tell she wasn't in the slightest scared, that was his hint, as he knew for sure that she had a mask on, and that mask meant that he didn't made it all up. The only question was whether it meant that he was really being rescued or played with some more.

The feeling of achievement and hope was quickly pushed aside by doubts again.

He tried to go over his head and think about what his friends would tell him.

_What are you thinking, shank? Don't be a klunk about this._

_Man up, Minho._

_Come on, slim it, you're acting like a little boy._

_Scary cat._

He chuckled almost hysterically what were friends for anyway? To tell you to slim it and suck it up. He was like that as well.

He looked up at the dark ceiling on top of his cell. He wondered if Newt, Thomas and Fry were somewhere with a better view. Strangely, he found himself tired all of the sudden. He never fell asleep faster there unless he was losing consciousness.

* * *

**Newt**

He did not know what to think about Gally being alive. The boy died going crazy and against them in the end. He found himself feeling incredibly guilty for how it ended with him. He had to be found and saved by strangers. At least he was found by the good ones. They were taken by WICKED again.

He looked around the group of people working for Lawrence it was not much different than Vince´s people and the Right Arm. They were people who worked together to help and save people, rebels, saviours..it didn't matter as long as they were against WICKED. They were more like him than Thomas and the other kids saved by Vince. They were not immune just like him. He could feel it so clearly now. He felt feverish and his hand often shook. It was not just in his mind. He was really going to die soon.

'It's fine, we can get inside,' said Gally looking even as if he had even more authority than he used to have in the glade.

'How?' asked Thomas sceptically not trusting his sudden appearance or resurrection.

Gally grinned looking pleased with himself, 'We have someone on the inside.'

'I don't think she will risk that much,' cut in someone from the group of people who were standing around watching them.

Gally shot him a look, 'Doc does what she has to to help. If we ask her she will help us. She works inside the WICKED if Minho is alive she will know,' he assured them, 'She will help us get him out.'

'How? The place has to be the most secured one there is,' pointed out Frypan as they all still looked doubtful about the whole idea that someone could get them inside.

Gally looked at him before he waved at one of the boy in the crowd. It was some sort of a signal because the boy walked a bit to the front and raised his hand soon fourteen others all from around the group of people and raised their hands as well. Most of them looked around their age or younger.

Thomas and the others looked at them confused before Gally spoke, 'Because all of the people who raised their hands? She already got _them_ all out.'

Newt opened his mouth caught off guard. She got fifteen people out of WICKED and they continued to live without the WICKED knowing.

He looked at those who had their hands raised. They were all the survivors of the things Minho was going through. He made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Once they decided that they would go at night and the crowd was spread. He found himself walking after one boy who was first to raise his hand.

He looked familiar but he couldn't really see where he's seen him.

'You were in there?' he asked. The boy looked at him oddly for a moment before he nodded, 'Yeah, your friend is there too? It's not good, man. It's nasty... haunts you forever.'

The blonde nodded. He talked with the boy for a bit. He found out his name was Jack and that he was the first one that the so called heroic _doc_ rescued. It was clear the boy was very grateful to her and wished to see her again.

When Newt asked if she was really that great, he smiled in a very strange way before he said.

'Yeah, it's like. You live in the dark for a long time. You know there is light outside, but inside it's dark where you are, and she comes. She doesn't brings light or sometimes, but it's like she opens the door...she opened the curtain when we were inside her apartment. We just sat there and watch the sunrise. She really lets the light in.'

He pat him on the shoulder like it would all make more sense. Newt personally thought the boy was too long with WICKED and got a bit jacked in the head.

He felt the familiar uneasy feeling inside his chest. He was getting worse fast. He needed to do something. He went over to Thomas and nodded at him signalling him to come with him away from the others. He didn't know what to do so he just told him. It felt as if he wasn't even talking about himself. It was as if he was talking about someone else who was sick. Someone else who was in his place. His shoes. Just someone else.

He saw how his friend swallowed hard, 'Do you want the cure?'

He chuckled shaking his head instantly, 'I would never want kids to get hurt because of me or anyone else. That's not me.'

'You can't just...we'll find a way,' said Thomas. Again with that optimism. As if lately luck smiled on them.

'I just want to find Minho, alright?' he told him, but Thomas put his hand on his shoulder. He had that look in his eyes like a kicked little dog, and it made Newt tempted to make him a bloody promise.

'Please let's just go save Minho.'

* * *

**Minho**

Today he felt different. It was as if he had a something moving under his skin and inside his whole body. It was like his body knew something was going to happen today. He was supposed to have another simulation, he spotted Teresa looking at him from across the hallway as the guards urged him to his room but quickly ducked so she wouldn't have to walk with him.

 _Coward_.

Nurse Mitch kept her distance. It was probably for the show. She moved silently yet precisely. She gave him a shot just like every other time before simulation. They strapped him to the bed, and his heart started to beat faster. He already knew what would happen, and yet he would think it was real.

He felt sort of weird though. More rushed then before, more awake. He looked over at the nurse right before everything turned black. He couldn't remember if she had any special look on her face, but then again she probably wouldn't have even if she was planning something.

* * *

_He woke up in the Glade again. Warm sun was hitting his face, yet he didn't feel good. He got to his feet. He instantly felt the crushing panic. He needed to get out. He rushed looked around, but he was alone. Alone in the Glade in day light. He didn't have to worry. He didn't have to worry, or did he?_

_He felt his feet moving on their own. Before he knew it he was running. He couldn't stay. He couldn't stay. Something would happen if he stayed he was sure of it. He ran until he heard the terrifying mechanical noises and the world around him changed. He wasn't in the glade, he was somewhere dark. He ran until he suddenly couldn't move. His screams echoed thought the hallway in what seemed to be some underground tunnels._

_The mechanical noises were getting closer. Soon the creature would get him. Soon...soon...soon._

* * *

For a second he woke up to someone's shouting.

'NOT AGAIN! God damn it!'

He recognized the doctor's voice. His eyes flied open as he felt a crushing pain inside his chest.

His eyes landed on someone in the corner of the room. It might have been just the pain or shock making him see things, but he would swore he saw Alby looking at him and signalling him to be quiet with his finger pressed to his lips.

In the next moment everything went black and the crushing chest pain consumed him from the inside.

* * *

He woke up with a start only to find Cora, the girl he felt like he hadn't seen in ages, holding his hand and looking into his eyes. He felt the same softness of her touch as when they brushed each other. He was lying in some warm and comfy bed which definitely was not the one he was falling asleep in when they were done torturing the life out of him. In fact he didn't even remember going to sleep in the first place. Something felt off.

Yet, her hand felt as soft as it always did when they touched and the bed was _so_ nice. The room didn't feel like a cell and the ceiling didn't have that metallic colour it always had. Wherever he was, wasn't WICKED. WICKED even when they were pretending to be the good guys never felt like this. They never made him feel... like this.

He sighed, 'Are you real?' In that moment it was the only thing, he really cared for. He didn't care if they were with some rebels, Right Arm, or whoever as long as it was real. If it was some sort of freaking illusion to simulation to torture him again, he would kill himself or go mad. He was sure of it.

'Yeah,' she said. In confirmation she took his hand into hers and put against her chest. He could feel the sound of her beating heart. It was a bit faster than it should be, or so he thought, but what did he know? He didn't think he ever had his hand on a girl's chest before.

'Twice is for I am okay, three times is for I am not,' she said after he just kept staring at their hands on her chest feeling her beating heart.

He looked from their hands to her brown eyes. He barely could make them out in the darkness of the room. It was night and the curtains were closed in wherever the hell he was but he could still sense that they were looking at him and that they looked welcoming and warm.

'Good that.'

He closed his eyes letting out a relieved sigh. He slowly remembered everything which happened. The nurse, the note, the crushing chest pain, even Alby.

He felt Cora move their hands from his chest and opened his eyes.

'It's fine. You can rest now. I will explain everything in the morning alright? We're safe now.'

He watched her for a moment considering her words. Safe. It felt so alien to him now. Like the true meaning of the word was long gone from his understanding. Still, when he looked at her, he could tell she meant it.

She watched him for a moment as his eyes were still on hers before she made herself lie down next to him still holding hands.

He turned a bit to look at her, but she didn't look unsure, in fact, she looked like it was the most natural thing ever to just lie down next to him on a warm bed in the dark.

Minho sighed again. He felt the sleep taking over again. He might as well take the most of it. He pulled her hand making sure he was still holding it before he closed his eyes. Having someone else's heartbeat and breathing next to him calmed him enough that he slept through the whole night.


	3. Chapter 3

 

_There are not strangers here, just friends you haven’t met yet. – Roald Dahl_

* * *

**Claudia**

Claudia was upstairs smoking again. She rarely smoked, but once again she found herself taking one from her savings. She had twenty in total left now. It was hard to get tobacco in the city lately. It was her uncle Bobby who thought her how to make a cigarette. She remembered how she always messed it up at first and how bad her hands smelled afterwards. Still it was almost nerve calming to do something with her hands.

Anyway, as she took another blow, she thought about everything. She had two teens under her roof now. Despite it being sort of better, because Cora made Minho calm and he didn’t freak out almost at all when he woke up, it was risky as hell. Two people meant trouble. She still couldn’t believe it she made herself be convinced by those baby brown eyes.

Rolling her eyes, she knew she needed to arrange a meeting.

Claudia went to the small bakery close to her apartment the next morning while the teens were still deep asleep. She still found herself feeling a little bit like some sap when she stood at the doorframe watching the two peacefully sleeping. Cora even had her head on Minho’s chest, and they were holding hands. It was ridiculous how much it made her feel happy and good about herself. She wasn’t doing it for some reward or anything and yet seeing them like that was oddly a rewarding.

 Shaking her head she came through the small door with a bell on top of them signalling her presence. She couldn’t take more food from the stories because that would cause suspicious, but bakeries were a bit different matter. The older woman let her into the back without anyone noticing as usual.

‘I need you to call them and arrange a meeting,’ she told the woman as she handed her the bread.

The woman, Marta, nodded, ‘When?’

‘Tonight. They will know where, but make sure they will be there.’

‘Another package then. There hasn’t been one in a while,’ said the woman. She might have used a calm tone, but Claudia knew she was suspicious. It was true. Since Will, the boy, before Cora, she didn’t ask for a meeting and since the girl refused to leave without Minho she didn’t ask for a long time.

She watched the woman carefully. Treason was a shifty business. If the people who could betray someone one day, who was the say they wouldn’t betray you the next. She wanted to see if Martha was still helping or not.

‘It has been too risky,’ said the nurse hoping to sound as ordinary. The older woman nodded, ‘Alright, I will let them know. Make sure to be there on time.’

She nodded and walked away to work. She needed to get them out of her apartment fast. As she walked down the street, she suddenly saw a small black shadow run in front of her.

‘Look, mommy a kitty,’ called a little boy by her side.

‘Hush, there was no cat,’ replied the woman as they increased their pace.

Claudia found herself stopping. Suddenly she had a very bad feeling about it, the teens, the whole meeting, them getting them out. It was as if something ice cold hit her heart and was spreading through her whole body. She had a very bad feeling.

* * *

**Cora  
**

She woke up. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, just that now she had her head on his chest and it momentary startled her, but she didn’t dare to move away since she assumed her was still asleep. She was lying on his chest motionless for what felt like a while now when he finally spoke, ‘If I ask you one more time if this is real, you will hit me won’t you?’

She blinked, ‘Were you awake this whole time?’

‘No, but I woke up before you. I just didn’t want to wake you,’ he said and Cora blinked, ‘So you didn’t scream or anything?’

‘Why would I scream?’ he asked. They were both talking in soft voices which filled the room a bit.

‘I screamed...I thought it wasn’t real...it was some sort of test by WICKED again,’ she explained brushing her hair a bit. She thought it was also a trick to make her feel like she was saved so she would hurt more in the end when she would found out it was once again all a lie, like when they saved them from the Maze.

He was quiet for a moment, so she sat up to look at him. She probably shouldn’t even have her head on his chest in the first place.

His eyes met hers, ‘I guess it calmed me down when I woke up and you were here.’

She watched him for a moment before she put her short hair behind her ear. It oddly made her feel something warm in her stomach when he said that.

‘Yeah. I get that. I started sleeping with Claudia after I came,’ she admitted before she looked at him. When he blinked curious, she explained to him how was life in her Maze, she explained about how cold it was and how they shared beds and kept close in the night.

‘I get that,’ he said when he took her hand suddenly but neither of them minded and just watched each other. It felt almost natural to hold hands.

She lowered her hand but kept their fingers linked watching him as all of his struggles moved though his face. Once he opened his eyes he looked so tired and so much older. Like the simple fact that he was out of WICKED made him ten years older than he was.

She probably looked like that as well.

They stayed like that completely silent in the dark of the room hidden behind the curtains for a while just talking about their lives in the Mazes.

‘We used to sleep in the same rooms too, but never cuddling. I think that wouldn’t be nice to wake up with some guy spooning me. It sounds nicer when girls spoon.’

She burst out of laugher after hearing him say that looking almost pained by the thought. It felt like it was the first time she actually laughed like herself again.

When she looked at him, she saw how he was smiling at her as well his eyes looking almost happy.

She brushed her hair a bit feeling embarrassed again, ‘Yeah, well, don’t get any wild thoughts, alright?’

He sighed but the smile stayed on his face, ‘One can dream.’

She had a feeling he would be a goofy one, ‘Come on, are you hungry? Claudia left us some food in the fridge, and you can take a shower if you want. You were basically in the morgue.’

She saw how his eyes widened, and she nodded to herself, ‘I should probably explain what happened after you well...died?’

He nodded softly and Cora explained him how Claudia got them both out. He moved to the small kitchen counter to eat what the nurse left for them. Cora didn’t say it out loud but she could tell that she had to go to work hungry because of it. She knew it probably shouldn’t completely trust the woman. Many people let her down, but the nurse took her to her apartment, let her sleep in her bed, gave her her food which she didn’t have that much to give, brought Minho in because she wouldn’t leave without him. She practically took more care of them than anyone she ever knew outside of the Maze.

She gave him most of her breakfast as well since he actually looked incredibly hungry as he wolfed his meal in a matter of minutes. While she felt like she couldn’t eat at all he didn’t lack appetite at all. A strange moment came when he actually went to take a shower and go to the bathroom, it would be the first time he would have to be alone in a room. Without asking if he needed her to she simply sat down behind the door and spend the whole time talking to him about anything she could think off from the Mazes, to the WICKED to Claudia.

‘So what can we do here?’ asked after they cleaned the dishes. She could see he was a bit struggling somehow looking at everything suspiciously just like she had when she came.

‘Not much, I usually just sit around or walk around and wait for Claudia to come. We can’t make too much noise so no broadcast or open curtains or going out.’

He nodded. What could they do though? She didn’t want to leave without him but what could she possibly do with him? She didn’t know him apart from having this insane feeling that she couldn’t leave him behind. She didn’t want to. They were all they had inside the WICKED. If one got out the other had to as well. There was no way around it. She wondered if he felt it too this thing...this pull between them. They barely spoke and yet they were completely linked.

She returned to the bedroom. Claudia’s room was a very tiny one. She mentioned living with an uncle at one point which was why she probably had a couch.

Biting her lip, she looked over at him. Minho was a very good looking guy in general. She didn’t know why it made her feel this weird twisted sensation in her stomach again as she thought about it. He wasn’t looking at her at the moment. When he did she sort of got an out of blue idea which made her whole world stop for a second.

The world was a mess which took and took and took from her. It took Emily, Maria and all the other girls she had in the maze. It took all her memories, her parents, her past, her childhood, everything she had and was. It took her soul and sane mind as it cut into her and made her go through the simulations which were worse than hell. They took and took and took...and she was done. She wanted to take something as well. Something which wouldn’t belong to WICKED. Something which was hers. Something which she did on her own not because it was a test or variable or whatever. She wanted something to be her own choice, her own doing.

She pushed her hair behind her ear, ‘Did you ever...kiss anyone?’

She saw how his breathing momentary went unbalanced as his chest moved faster for a second.

‘Why do you ask?’

She shrugged her shoulders, ‘I kissed a girl, Maria, just to see how it feels.’

He looked surprised and puzzled by her words. She didn’t know why she told him that either until he suddenly chuckled.

‘And you said _no_ wild thoughts, ha?’

She giggled a bit before she moved closer to him suddenly his smile breaking into a tight line as he realized what she wanted to do next. He was clearly nervous. He pressed his palms into his pants and slowly brushed his thighs. She wondered if it was because he was sweating. She bit the inside of her mouth watching him like that.

She easily shifted a little bit closer before she raised her brows a small smirk playing on her face, ‘Do you want to?’

He blinked definitely confused, ‘How can you ask that?’

‘Because you can say if you don’t,’ she said simply and the look in his eyes was full of understanding. WICKED never asked for anything. They just took.

He leaned closer as well after that and put his hands on her waist. She was quite tall. One of the tallest girls in Spring and almost as tall as Minho, however, he was quite more larger than her. He was more masculine and when he put his hands on her body she felt how strong he could be. It made her heart speed up realizing that she was really going to kiss him. She kissed Maria when they were six months in the Maze. It was mostly just to see how it felt and they both quickly burst into laugh afterwards at how silly they were. They didn’t tell the others, just made a inside joke about it saying that maybe kissing boys was more fun.

She really wanted to know in that moment.

Right before the actual touch of their lips he stopped her and it made her puzzled, but he only took a deep look into her eyes. It was as if he wanted to memorize her before the kiss maybe thinking that she would look different afterwards. She tried to do the same for him.

She was very slowly as she pressed her lips against his. The act could hardly be described like something out of a romance novel, his lips were quite warm but it felt a bit dry. She licked her lips a bit before she kissed him against. He titled his head and their lips brushed in a very soft friction.

She didn’t even remember who was started the talk. They had more important things to deal with then thinking about boys, who weren’t in the Spring, yet somehow the talk started. She was sitting by the fire in the dinner room with Maria.

_Maybe it’s really disgusting_. She remembered saying at one point, but Maria didn’t look convinced.

_I think it could be nice…the touch. It feels nicely warm when you touch someone else. It’s different then when you touch yourself. Maybe because you are in control and you know where you are going to touch and what you are going to do, but when someone else does it. It completely lacks any expectation. You don’t know where or how he will touch you. Soft, tender, rough, firm and I think that is what makes the touch feel so profound so amazing; the same must be with kissing._

She was right. It was the fact that it was someone else was touching her, kissing her, which made her heart almost hurt and yet feel happier she had been in a while. It wasn’t urgent but she didn’t mind, and he didn’t seem the either. The slowness made it all the more tender and sweet. It was like the perfect moment of pure gentleness. It wasn’t earth shattering or anything like that. It was simple, calm and very human, something which both of them crave very much. It made her feel very warm inside. She was rarely cold. She used to live in a place where the temperature was never higher than zero, but the kiss made her feel all warm up when she didn’t even know she was freezing inside. In the simplest act of their having someone else’s lips moved against her own Cora found something she didn’t know she needed. Maybe she did. Since she first saw him walking into the elevator, and their hands touched in a way which caused a small spark, she had this feeling inside her chest like Minho had something. Something which she wanted, something which she needed...it just never occurred to her that perhaps that something was him.

She chuckled against his lips for a second.

‘What?’

‘Sorry, it’s just...me and my friend after we kissed we came to the conclusion that maybe kissing boys was more fun since we didn’t feel anything,’ she said feeling her heart hitting her chest from the inside like a wild animal in a cage from the feeling his lips left on hers. She never felt like that before.

He stroked her cheek, ‘Is it? More fun?’

‘Definitely more fun,’ she told him before she pressed her lips to his again only this time pushing the lips open. When she first felt his tongue against her own, it caused her whole body to shiver like a flickering light before the light bulb is fully turned on. That kiss lightened her up. They kissed for a while enjoying the sensation and taste. Unlike the brief peek with Maria, kissing Minho was far more intense. It reminding her of running and yet not at all like running. It made her feel alive inside again, safe, complete and she didn’t know what to do with all those feeling all of the sudden. She wanted more. Their tongues started to fight a bit for dominance. She was...if only she could explain what was happening to her right in that moment. It was like nothing she ever experienced and it was almost too much. Her hands went from his shoulders to his stomach. She could feel all the muscles underneath it. It gave her another idea.

* * *

**Newt**

Gally took them to the city behind the walls. He urged them not to stare, but honestly he felt like puking as he saw how these people lived calm, happy, busy. Behind the walls people had to fight for their lives while here they lived in cotton. It truly made him sick to his stomach, but it might as well be the flare.

They walked through the center passing people who barely spare them a glace rushing somehow. He wondered if this was how everyone lived there. Always going somewhere, never stopping not even for a second. Everything seemed to make him surprised and curious, but Gally walked around like he couldn’t even be bother be by such things.

‘This way,’ said Gally and led them to a man behind a stand. He was giving away coffee by the smell of the beans and tea while people stood next to the stand their beverages in their hands or on tall tables which were nearby. Everyone looked so…ordinary. Behind these walls people were scared, terrified of dying, running and fighting to survive while here people run from one place to another and drank coffee like it was an ordinary Saturday?

He felt angry. He felt like punching one of them to knock some sense into them right there and then. His eyes widened at the violent thoughts. He instantly recognized it as not his own. It was the Flare.

He looked over at Thomas, who was giving him worried glances. He noticed the tension in his body as well. He told him before they entered the city. There was no point in hiding it further, not from him at least.

Gally walked closer to one of the woman who was drinking from her cup. He walked a bit closer and Thomas and he followed. It was almost a joke how much the people didn’t even bother to look at them. If one of them, just one was working for Janson they would recognized them instantly, wouldn’t they?

He glanced over at the woman as she spoke, ‘Hey do you have some light?’

Gally chuckled, ‘Sorry, ma’am, we don’t smoke.’

Newt didn’t understand what was happening.

The woman nodded, but instead of looking at him, she looked at Newt and Thomas. Nothing in her look said suspicious, and yet he knew she was careful about them. If she was their inside person it meant she worked for WICKED. Did she recognize them? Maybe not him, but Thomas had a big target on his back.

He looked at her as well. She was quite short, and he would never guess she was older than them and a doctor as Gally called her. She had long brown hair which was loosely hanging around her shoulders. She had light brown coat on top of her clothes, but he could see she was wearing a long skirt under it and shoes with small heels. He blinked at that realizing she must have been even shorter.

_How small was this woman?_

She looked nothing like a spy or double agent or whatever. She looked so…innocent, naïve? He didn’t know why but maybe it was because she was so petite. She didn’t look intimidating at all. She didn’t look like someone who was risking so much every day.

She looked back at her plastic cup before she threw it into the bean nearby. Gally turned around as if he just wanted to tell them something, but didn’t move while the woman took her bag from the ground. They obviously did this a few times. She started to walk away, but Gally still remained standing and looking at them. No one noticed it.

Suddenly, however, the woman was stopped. He watched as a man came to her and stopped her talking to her. She turned a bit around and Gally frowned, ‘We have to go. She’ll find us later.’

She looked annoyed even if she was perfectly calm and smiling, he could tell she was annoyed. He looked over at his friends before he made a choice. None of them had time to stop him as he was in a matter of moments by her side. He would blame it on the Flare later.

‘Hey, doc, how are you?’ Newt asked hoping his accent was pushed away as much as possible. Her blue eyes widened at him for a moment, but instead of making it seem suspicious, she quickly smiled and jumped toward him putting her hands on his shoulders, ‘Oh my God, John, look at you. You’re _so_ tall. How are you?’

‘I’m okay. What about you?’ he asked hoping he was putting up just as good of an act as her because _bloody hell_ she was good.

He realized that the man was looking at him a bit upset that he was obviously stepping in on his moment.

‘Well, a bit tired. Are you going to visit your mom?’ she asked without a single stumble and he nodded enthusiastically, ‘Yeah, I’m on my way to her now. We can walk together, right?’

‘That would be nice. You can tell me all about what you have been up to,’ she said before she turned to the man, ‘See, it’s fine. I’m never lost or alone with such nice neighbors.’

The man nodded but everything in his body langue said hostile and Newt had a feeling if he could he would get violent with him for causing him to have to back down on whatever he was planning with the nurse.

She patted his arm as if she noticed something in his eyes as well, ‘See you at work, Carter.’

She quickly led him away asking something about how he was doing and how was his job. She wasn’t being too loud and acted completely natural. He was dead wrong about this woman. She wasn’t a first timer or someone who would break easily. She was very skilled and professional instantly falling into the act or character.

He led her to where he saw the others had headed. Once they were close and out of other passing people preying eyes she went straight to Gally, ‘You’re late. That was my second cup. I won’t be able to sleep at night.’

Newt and Thomas looked at her as if she was insane when she said that, but in the next moment she smirked and they found out she wasn’t that upset. Or was she?

Gally relaxed as well.

‘We couldn’t come sooner. I’m sorry. Can you bring them?’ he asked, but she shook her head, ‘Not tonight. It’s too late. If someone sees you guys outside after seven it could end everything,’ she told him wisely and he nodded, ‘I get it.’

She nodded before she looked at Thomas and Newt, ‘New friends?’

‘Actually,’ he said a bit hesitantly before he looked back at them and then her, ‘Old ones. Look, we didn’t just come today to talk about the kids we will take tomorrow. We came to ask you for something….the end game, doc.’

She opened her mouth as if she was going to protest or say something, but Newt watched as she suddenly went all calm again as if this was something she knew was coming for a long time.

‘Alright, but first I need you take the kids. It’s too risky to keep them both in my apartment any longer,’ she said, and he nodded, ‘No worries. We’ll get them tomorrow. Wait _them_. You never take more than one,’ he said realizing what she said.

Newt saw how the _doc_ looked stressed as well, ‘Believe me. I wouldn’t but…it got complicated.’

‘Ah, doc, you do care,’ said Gally and the woman gave him a look, ‘Don’t tell it to anyone. It’s a secret.’

It was clear the two worked a few times and had good relationship working and personal if they could tease each other and joke. Gally said they saved over fifteen kids, so they had to work well together. It was good, they needed the best help they could get, not just any help they could get.

‘Uh, doc?’ asked Thomas and the woman looked him up and down suspiciously, ‘Yes.’

‘We wanted to ask you something first. Gally said you work with kids, who are the testing subjects,’ he said and she nodded, ‘Yeah, you want to ask about someone.’

Newt felt impressed. Not only was she a good liar and a bloody Samaritan but also very clever and quick. He instantly felt that if he spent more time with her he could come to like her. She wasn’t naïve even when she was so small she might look like something cute that needed to be cuddled or protected. No, this was someone who could handle things on her own. This was someone who controlled the situation.

Thomas nodded, ‘His name is Minho. He was taken to the city a few months ago. He was a Runner in the Maze trails. I know you probably saw a lot of boys there but he-’

She suddenly closed her eyes and Newt felt his heart stop. He was waiting. He was sure she would tell them that he was already dead and that they came to the city for nothing. When she looked at him she had an odd grimace on her face. He started to feel weak. He felt that he had a fever earlier, and he definitely knew the Flare was spreading. He just hoped he would survive just a little longer.

‘Do you believe in God?’ she asked. Neither knew what to say to such a question.

‘He’s in my apartment. He and a girl name Cora are in my apartment. They’re the kids I need you to get out of the city.’

They all shared a look before Thomas let out a shaky breath showing how moved he was, ‘He’s out. You got him out. How? WICKED would never let him go.’

‘They would if they thought they killed him,’ she replied calmly, ‘But you’re right in thinking it’s hard. It is,’ she said it pointing out purposely how hard it must have been. He still felt dizzy. He thought it was because he was momentary worried about Minho, but the feeling still wouldn’t go away, even when now he knew he was safe in this woman’s apartment, he still….

‘T-tommy,’ he said before he really felt like he was looking touch with everything.

‘Is he infected?’ he heard the woman ask, but he didn’t see her because everything turned black.

 


	4. Chapter 4

_They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered - F. Scott Fitzgerald_

* * *

**Newt**

The next time he opened his eyes, the woman was kneeling in front of him looking at his stomach which was now covered in dark veins from the flare. He still felt how soft her hands were as they moved against his skin. Wasn’t she afraid of getting the flare?

_Not how I imaged my first time shirtless with a pretty girl would be like._

‘Maybe next time then,’ she said and when their eyes meet he realized he spoke out loud.

One good thing about dying is that he didn’t have to care about being embarrassed.

He heard Thomas chuckle a bit though. He should find himself new friends thought. Better friends.

He looked at him as he was sitting by his feet with Gally looking around them keeping watch. This was bad. He caused them more problems than he was worth.

She patted his cheek, ‘Newt?’

It sounds so different in her mouth.

‘Come on, I have one dose in my apartment. But we can’t all go.’

Gally walked up to him and they both helped him up. ‘Can you walk on your own buddy?’

 ‘You can’t all come. It’s too risky,’ said Claudia as Thomas didn’t look too happy to let the boy go on his own, but if there was a chance to help him is best friend was all for it.

* * *

They went into the train. It looked so different than the ruins of trains and subways behind the walls. Everything was so crowded and clean and people looked so...calm, with zero worries just living their lives. He really hated them in that moment, and himself for feeling that way.

'You're staring,' she mumbled close to his ear and he looked at her a bit startled. She had a point. He felt like he was staring too much. It just made him stare. How could he not? The world was on fire and people here were living like nothing was wrong...like everything was okay.

The nurse sighed before she turned toward him in her seat so that she could face him, 'We can talk if it will ease you up a bit. It will be less suspicious if we talk like ordinary folks.'

He nodded, 'Alright. What would you want to talk about?'

‘Whatever you want. Is there something you want to know about the city? WICKED?’ she asked.

He looked at her suspiciously but she was so calm there was no way it was a trick. Or was she that good?

The calm face made him want to shock her, cause a reaction out of her, something to break the façade.

‘Why do you do it?’ he asked. He thought she would be surprised to ask something like that, but he was wrong about her again. She blinked at him calmly before she admitted, ‘If you are hoping for some hero complex or sad story there isn’t one. My uncle once meet Lawrence’s people. He came with the idea but didn’t force me it was my choice.’

He moved closer to her so the others wouldn’t here, ‘But why? Why do it? Did you just want to help?’

She was silent for a while, ‘I suppose.’

‘But not just that,’ he cut in and saw how she realized he caught her a bit. She nodded, ‘You’re right. I also wanted to know.’

‘Know what?’

‘If I could pull it off,’ said the nurse, ‘I thought about it for a while before I actually did it. I prepared for a long time, I wanted to help those kids. It’s always about that, but yeah, the first time, I was also curious if I could even pull it off.’

He stared at her for a moment before he found himself chuckling, ‘How does it feel?’

She blinked.

‘Knowing that all those people there and _you_ singlehandedly play them every single time you save someone?’

The question caused a playful smirk to form on her lips and he was oddly strucked by how it made his stomach flinch at the sight of it. Now looking at her up close he saw the large number of freckles which covered her whole face and what little skin he could see under her blouse. Her skin was very pale apart from them and it a odd way it reminded him of some sort of parallel for the night sky. Dark with white stars and her white skin with her dark freckles. It was a fascinating combination.

‘Freaking good,’ she admitted before looked in front of herself pulling her hair behind her ear. She looked a bit shy in that moment.

* * *

**Claudia**

She felt her heart stop for a moment when she saw the parole officers walk inside. Since there was some disturbance outside the walls they increased the paroles. She knew taking Newt to her apartment was a stupid idea, but his collapse freaked her out. He wouldn’t survive another night most likely and she didn’t want to risk it. He helped her get rid of Carter. She owned him that much. She seriously didn’t want to be with Carter any second longer or risk him coming to her apartment like that one time. She shivered at the thought.

The fear of him coming over was long forgotten as she watched the parole officers start to check people in the train.

Claudia sensed the blonde moving. He put his hand into his pocket. She instantly knew he had a gun there.

She grabbed his elbow, ‘Just follow my lead. We will be fine.’

She purposely looked at him to sell the story further. Funny how small is the city.

When he looked at her, she felt like shivering. His eyes were so intense she felt like for a moment something caught the air inside her throat and she couldn’t let it out.

She still forced herself to smile, ‘Just...trust me, Newt.’

He looked incredibly wary but nodded just as the officer came to them, ‘ID card please.’

‘Oh, hi, okay, just a second,’ she said with a calm smile before she looked at the man closely, ‘Wait, are you from the 4th station?’ she asked. The 4th station was the closest, so it was most likely they were from their as well.

A dark haired officer nodded, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ He was a bit off guard, but she just nodded, ‘I thought so. Do you know Peter Morrison?’

‘You mean Chief Morrison?’ he asked.

‘Right, chief, sorry I just call him Pete. He comes to the lab to talk with Councillor Stevens,’ she said, ‘Pete’s great. How’s he as a boss?’

She was sunshine chatty, but the man seemed to buy it. She saw how he now looked seriously cautious. He didn’t want to say something which would end in him looking badly in the Chief and Councillor’s eyes.

‘Yeah, Chief’s a great man. We’re lucky to have him,’ he said nodded making sure he sounded actually happy about it.

‘Isn’t it a small city, John?’ she turned to Newt.

‘Yes, small city’, he replied quietly, causing her to want to stop looking at him. He looked at her as if he could see right through her. She hated that look. She really did.

‘Tosh,’ called the man from the other side of the train. He was already done with the checkups and wanted to move the next wagon.

‘Gosh, this is so me. Sorry to bother you with chitchat you probably have a lot of work. Don’t worry, Pete knows me so he would totally get that I kept you,’ she said and giggled like some stupid girl.

The man shook his head, ‘It’s not your fault, ma’am. Have a nice evening.’

‘Thank you and you too officer, bye.’

He quickly followed his colleague and she heard Newt visibly sighed in relief.

They looked at each other again and he raised his brows, ‘You’re amazing, you know that, right?’

She was surprised by the praise. It wasn’t mockery, or disapproval. It was admiration and she didn’t know what to think about that or why he asked her all those questions before.

‘So you have paroles here,’ he said brushing his forehead. He got a bit sweaty.

She nodded and turned toward him again, ‘Yes, but they doubled them recently. We’re not sure why, but something happened behind the wall.’

He sighed before he smiled a bit and she nodded, ‘Which were you guys I assume.’

‘Yes, it was,’ he nodded. He briefly told her about what happened outside the wall. She assumed it had to be something like this. It didn’t take her long to figure out that they were the wanted A.D Janson was so eagerly speaking about all the time.

She was right about the bad feeling from the morning. This wasn’t just bad. This was utterly horrible, but then again she was dead either way. So why did it matter if she was helping just some strangers or WICKED’s most wanted.

* * *

**Minho**

She leaned away from him as she sensed that he got worried for a moment, ‘Are you sure?’

‘I just…I just want something that isn’t controlled by WICKED. Something which is mine not theirs…yours,’ she stroked his cheek, ‘Does that make sense?’

He nodded raising her a bit higher one of his hands going into her hair while the other stroke her back, ‘Yeah…I want this too. I want you too.’

She nodded as well, and leaned closer to him again. He thought about it. He doubted he loved her. He doubted she loved him, but they were the only thing each of them had left there. He honestly didn’t care if it was weird or messed up. He got why she wanted it. He felt that way too, he just wanted to feel something else. Something which wasn’t controlled by WICKED. Something which could be just theirs.

He kissed her his fingers tangled in her short curly hair. He liked how soft it was after she took a shower. Claudia had a shampoo bottle in her bathroom. Something he completely forgot existed. It smelled nice. Soap didn’t smell like anything and it never made his hair feel the way it did Cora’s. The kisses were uncoordinated a bit, panicked yet passionate. He felt excited even when she accidentally bit his lip too hard.

‘Sorry,’ she said putting a hand over her mouth, but he actually was kind of into it.

‘No...it’s okay,’ he said slowly and watched as she realized what he meant before she leaned toward him again kissing him. His hands went to her lower back. She was so tin; he could feel her spine under his fingers as he let his hands wonder into her shirt.

She broke the kiss and moved a bit ending up sitting in his lap. He liked that even more as he dragged her face back to his so he could kiss her. He felt himself getting hard feeling her so close to him. Feeling her on top of him. The kisses started to be even more urgent, as her tiny fingers found their way under his shirt touching his stomach and abs. He liked that she didn’t hesitate, she wanted to explore him just like he wanted her.

Breaking the makeout her kissed her jaw, the tiny scar, he had yet to ask her about, her cheek bone, her neck, throat.

She let out a tiny moan when he found a place behind her ear and sucked at it. He was going to kiss that place a lot as he fingers dug almost painfully into his chest when he did that. That was a place that definitely made her tick.

She brushed her hair a bit as she leaned away and took the bottom of her shirt. He didn’t move keeping his hand security around her waist but in a light, not demanding way. When the shirt was over her head it revealed a perfect warm brown skinny and white bra.

She was sucked in her lips as her hands folded the shirt before she put it at the end of the bed. She probably lost a bit of her courage because he saw her hands shivering for a moment. He let his thumbs stroke her naked waist. She was so skinny he could see some of her ribs even in the dark of the room. His eyes were fixed on them for a moment wondering how come she wasn’t starving before she suddenly reached behind her back and unhooked her bra.

He instantly grabbed his attention again as she slide it down and put it on top of the shirt. His eyes were at her now naked breast. He never saw a girl without her clothes on before. Sure, he knew how they must look. He knew about basic biology of females yet it never occurred to him how they looked like in real life round and soft looking even if they were quite small. He still thought they were nice looking.

He licked his lips as he felt the inside of his mouth and lips go dry all of the sudden. There was something really beautiful about Cora being naked like that in front of him. He realized he was staring at her for a long time and that she was probably uncomfortable a bit by it. He reached for his own shirt behind his back and pulled it over his head. He wanted to toss it to the side, but the girl took it and folded just like she did her own putting it on top of her bra and shirt. He didn’t question it. The whole room had a strange atmosphere now. They were both stripped to the waist with Cora sitting in his lap.

Minho let his hands returned to her waist pulling her closer while he let one hand run higher. He wanted to touch them. He let his fingers run across them. They were so soft, he was afraid he would hurt her if he grabbed her too tightly.

When she flinched he instantly pulled back, ‘Sorry.’

‘No, just,’ she took his hands into hers and blow some hot air on them, ‘You hands are cold.’

He nodded watching as her lips were inches away from his fingers, ‘Sorry.’

When she looked at him she smiled a little bit before she let his hands rest on her chest.

He leaned toward her and captured her lips while he let his hands travel through her breasts. He was careful as he let his fingers examine them. When he stroke one of her nipples with his thumb she moaned into his mouth and he felt himself grow hard from just the feeling and sound of it.

He swallowed a bit as she moved her hand upside down and slowly almost teasingly travelled into the beginning of his pants. When her fingers went inside and found his member he broke the kiss with a loud groan against the side of her face.

They kissed again, as he started to massage her breast and she playfully stroke his cock for a while feeling like they were someone completely else. He didn’t even remember that they were on someone else’s bed, room, apartment. He didn’t remember that they were inside a city where the organization which wanted to harvest them for a greater good was centred. He didn’t remember his friends who were probably far away or anyone he lost so far. He didn’t remember anything except for the moment, Cora, her warm and alive body and what she did to him.

He found himself biting her neck which caused her to grip him harder. He swore he almost came just from that alone, but someone caught himself in time.

She looked just as struggling when she looked at him, ‘You think we can...now?’

He nodded kissing her causing her to melt against him before they parted and pulled their pants and underwear down. He didn’t even try to throw them away and just gave them to her to fold and put at the pile of clothing which was now at the corner of the bed. He found himself chuckling at the absurdness.

‘What?’ she asked with a slight frown.

‘You’re weird, girl,’ he said it with a grin, but there was softness in his voice and adoration in his eyes.

Cora rolled her eyes but he could tell she didn’t mind. They faced each other again looking at each other. Now he really could say he saw a girl naked.

It was strangely probably the most beautiful thing he ever saw, and since he had a feeling she never saw a boy naked either with how she looked at him with the same level of curiosity and embarrassment it made him oddly proud. It felt good to be her first.

‘Like what you see?’ he found himself asking, and she gave him a look, ‘Well, one of us does,’ she said as she nodded at his almost completely hard cock.

He chuckled a bit before he reached for her it was hard to laugh when he felt completely taken by her and wanted nothing more than to touch her and do something he wasn’t even sure what to her.

She instantly moved closer and they kissed standing on their knees in Claudia’s bed. He didn’t touch her anywhere yet and just kept his hands on her face while she had her hands around his neck her forearms the only part of body which was touching him.

He felt his member against her stomach as they moved during the kissing before she leaned away and slowly lied down on her back looking at him. He waited until she was fully down before he leaned on top of her careful not to crush her. She appeared to be too delicate now. She always looked so brave and resistant in WICKED. She would put up a fight and cause trouble, but here completely bare as he saw how skinny she was, she felt incredibly fragile and he did not want to break or even hurt her in away way.

She watched him before she stroke his cheek probably sensing his hesitation, ‘I’m not a doll, okay? I will tell you if it hurts or I don’t want something.’

He nodded at that and kissed her for a while before she asked, ‘Are you okay?’

He gave her a look if she was serious. He was the guy and she could literally feel how hard he was and...he thought she was joking, but when she looked at him, he understand. In WICKED they just took they never asked if they were alright with it.

He nodded, ‘Yeah, I’m great.’

He kissed her and although he was kissing her for the last half hour that one kiss felt different. She could probably tell too. That one kiss was as if he was really in love with her.

They looked at each other for a moment, but neither said a word. She just silently spread her legs for him and he went between them. He first let his fingers stroke her causing her to gasp and thrown her head a bit backwards against the pillows. He felt the wetness of her on his fingers as he pulled them out. He slowly guided himself inside her feeling himself trembling a bit. Partly from the nervousness and partly from the excitement. When he was inside her he had to grip the covers underneath them as he felt the wonderful way her walls gripped around him. He was worried he would come just from the feeling as well as that he would just go right inside and hurt her. He opened his eyes and looked at her. She had her eyes close and was frowning a bit.

‘Cora?’

‘I’m fine...just...moment,’ she breathed hard. He tried to pull out but she grabbed his shoulder, ‘Just a moment.’

‘Alright,’ he told her before he leaned down and kissed her sucking at her lower lip while his free hand went to softly stroke her neck and then breasts.

When she moaned again he slowly moved further into her feeling her shaky breaths in his ear. She felt so good he had to grip the covers tighter not to lose himself.

‘Minho,’ she said his name almost like a prayer, and he went a bit deeper before he stopped again. She raised her leg all of the sudden and it was like he could go even deeper. He looked at her and she blinked at him letting her hands run over his shoulders to his back.

‘Okay, I’m good now.’

He nodded at that and started to slowly move feeling a wave of sensation hit him every time he moved inside her. It felt heavenly.

She watched him silently both of them breathing hard. It wasn’t awkward; it was just very intense and hot. It was a bit chaotic, but then she started to move her hips as well, and he groaned hard from how it increased the feeling.

He let his fingers go to her waist while hers dug into his back. The pain also felt good. He moved against her. Both of them breathing and moaning hard.

‘Minho,’ she said and he loved how his name sounded when she was all moaning and sweating like that.

He kissed her trying to make them synch in their movements. His hands adored guiding her body against his.

‘Faster,’ she said suddenly and he looked at her before he started obeyed realizing he wanted to as well, just didn’t know if he could ask for it. He felt her fingers digging deeper into his flesh and he enjoyed the sensation just as much as the one which came from his cock all wrapped and moving inside her. He felt how he was growing. He felt that he was close and he only hoped she would be as well.

He moved even faster groaning as she shifted her other leg higher which allowed him to push deeper into her.

‘Cora.’

They looked each other into the eyes, and he knew that it must have been all the pressure which was building inside from their movement, but the look in her eyes, all hungry and raw and passionate definitely had some effect on why he suddenly felt it all bursting out just as he pulled away from her so he would come outside of her.

He instantly lost his balance and fell on top of her barely holding onto his hands so he wouldn’t crush her. He was breathing so hard and his heartbeat was off the roof. Not a Griever, running or WICKED ever made his heart beat this crazily fast. He slowly rose himself to look at her.

Her left hand was no longer at his back as she had her fingers in her hair brushing the greasy hair away from her forehead. Her chest was raising and falling just as rapidly as his own looked and felt.

He watched her and thought in that moment that it was definitely the most stunning thing he ever freaking saw. She was breathtaking. Her lips were all swollen from their passionate kisses. Her whole body was covered in little drops of sweat. He saw a red mark on her throat realizing he was the one who put it there as he sucked on the spot causing her to melt against his lips earlier.

He did this to her, and in his mind he had no doubt that it was his most proud achievement ever.

When she finally opened her eyes, her pupils were dilated. She had an expression on her face which he couldn’t really explain. She silently leaned higher and kissed him. This time a bit tenderly then before almost like their first kiss. He enjoyed it, nevertheless.

‘Are you alright?’

She nodded before she fallen on the pillow again breathing hard, ‘I don’t think my heart was every pouting this fast.’

She pressed her hand against her chest.

He chuckled, ‘Yeah, tell me about it. You think the WICKED could get that blueprint now?’

She giggled at that. They both felt a bit light headed after their climax.

He rolled to the side and then on his back, ‘I think I need a moment.’

She nodded looking at the ceiling before she rolled over and put her head on his chest. He liked that much more and kissed her hair so she knew he did.

‘You think Claudia will know?’ he asked, ‘That we did it in her bed?’

‘Well, I want to say no, but you kind of messed the sheets and she’s really smart.’

‘Yeah, I didn’t want to come inside you...you know.’

She nodded against his chest. She did know. They both remembered that much about intercourse. Neither of them said it, but they both silently agreed that they couldn’t have a baby not now definitely not now. He never thought he would have to even deal with something like that. Wondering if he could have a kid. What was that like?

He brought his hand and started to softly stroke her back. He liked how simple it felt to just reach out and stroke her naked body. He liked everything about


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N: Thanks for reading :)

* * *

_Appreciate the moment of a first kiss, it may be the last time you own your heart. – r.m. drake_

* * *

**Newt**

There were many things Newt could admire about Claudia, one of them was her accuracy. It was as if she had everything timed and planned with several steps in her mind ahead. He understood it. It made sense that she had to make sure everything work like a clock when she was working against a deadly organization such as the WICKED.

He waited five minutes like she told him before he went into her building. She waited for him by the stairs. He saw a chair with a lot of screens once he stepped inside but no one else was there. He followed her as she explained how the guard took breaks to smoke as well as breaks to check the hallways.

She led him to her floor and apartment. He suddenly felt weak in his knees again. He quickly pressed his hand against the wall. He felt like he was rotting on the inside.

The woman turned toward him and pressed the back of her palm against his forehead and then again his cheek, ‘You’re burning up.’

He nodded a little bit.

She stepped away and opened the door, ‘Come in quickly.’

He managed to get off the wall and walk into the small hallway in her apartment. She turned on the lights, but didn’t shout or anything.

They waited for a moment before Minho and a tall girl with dark skin came from one of the rooms. Claudia stepped aside so Minho could see him. He could see the shock in his friend’s eyes that much was obvious.

He rushed to him and pulled him into a tight embrace which the other boy quickly returned.

* * *

**Claudia**

Claudia felt a bit as if she was intruding. She went to the living room hearing Newt and Minho’s soft words. Neither could control how happy they were that they met again. She thought back to all the trouble they had to find each other. They really were a family. She briefly thought to Ethan. She hadn’t thought about him for a long time now. Not since she knew he was gone. It was too painful to think about him when she knew she couldn’t do anything about it. She wondered if he had that too. If he felt like he had a family in the Maze when he must have forgot all about the one he had outside it. He got taken when he was six. She never saw him after that. She joined WICKED and searched every database she found access to. He died almost a year into the trials by the file she had.

She went to the bathroom leaving the teens to talk while Cora stood a bit distant from them. She would have to deal with that later as she went to the lose mirror in her bathroom and pulled out a small safety box. She noticed how the teens were fixing their clothes a bit as they came from her room. She knew it would happen sooner or later. Cora refused to leave without and they were all alone, in her apartment without nothing left to do? Of course they would fool around. She was a bit surprised it happened so fast though.

She punched the code into the safety box and took one of the doses she had left. She had five in total, but she never told anyone how many she had. It was better that way. If people thought she had less they would be less greedy.

When she came out Cora walked toward her, ‘Are you hungry? We could make dinner.’

The nurse smiled and nodded, ‘Sure. But we have something we need to do first.’

She looked over at Newt, who nodded as well when his eyes caught the dose in her hand. The other two teens followed his gaze. Minho suddenly looked stone cold, ‘You’re infected?’

The blonde haired boy looked at him, ‘Yes.’

‘You said the cure you have so far is temporary,’ he said looking at the small dose inside her palm.

Claudia shrugged, ‘It’s better than the rest but yes. It buys you a month max.’

‘A month is better than a few days,’ mumbled Newt as he could see the look in Minho’s eyes. This was different. Being ripped apart for strangers and for his friend was a colossal difference. She saw how behind Minho’s clever eyes all of it flashed. The cure came from them being tortured, the cure which would now save temporarily his best friend. She saw the conflict and the pain.

She sighed as she looked over at Cora, who looked oddly hurt in that moment as she saw the conflict on the other boy’s face as well. It must have been different to realize that you weren’t the only people left on the world, that each other wasn’t the only thing you had left.

The nurse stepped in to catch their attention again, ‘Let’s get you that shot, hm?’

Newt looked up at her and nodded slowly before he patted Minho’s shoulder, ‘I’ll be fine and we will talk afterwards, okay mate?’

He nodded and let him go.

* * *

**Cora**

She looked over at the boy she just spend several hours in the bed touching him and letting her touch her…have sex with him. She looked away. It felt too hard to look at him for a moment, ‘Uh, we should make dinner for once they are done.’

It was the first time he looked away from the door Newt and Claudia disappeared behind.

‘Yeah, we…let’s do that.’

He followed her to the kitchen and they slowly started to work. She brought food out of the fridge. Claudia was home so they could have the lights on. She noticed him looking over at her, but she kept her eyes on what she was doing.

When she kissed him, when she touched him and everything…she thought they were the only ones left. She thought it would be just them. But his friends were alive, and they came from him. It was great, but it felt like it change things now. Now, they weren’t allow anymore, they will be others. Others who weren’t in the WICKED. People she didn’t know and who didn’t know her, but who knew and were close with Minho. It made everything feel different. Would she fit into the picture of his life with other people? She didn’t know them. She only knew Minho, but that was also inside Claudia’s small apartment and what little they knew in the WICKED. Would it be enough for the real world outside?

‘Oh,’ she breathed out startled more than hurt as she cut herself.

‘Careful,’ he said even if it was pointless since she was already cut.

He was by her side in a second with his hands on her wrist and palm to look closely at her index finger.

‘Great,’ she said disappointed. Minho didn’t say anything just watched the blood go out before he leaned down and put the finger into his mouth. She swallowed a little bit feeling warm as she remembered him licking other parts of her body.

He leaned away, ‘Does it hurt?’

‘No, it’s fine.’

They finally looked at each other. Neither of them said anything for a while just watched each other. Both were unsure what to do about what was happening.

‘Tell me about him,’ she suggested as she took her hand from his and went to work again, ‘Newt?’

Minho watched her for a moment before he shrugged his shoulders, ‘Not much to tell here. He’s…the best shank I know.’

He returned to his work but started to talk anyway. She listened feeling her heart sinking a bit. She wanted them to be something, but she wasn’t sure they could outside in the real world.

* * *

**  
** **Newt**

Claudia led him to her bathroom. It was small but cleaned, yet he noticed how she eyes the sheets almost angrily for a moment before she asked him to sit at the corner of the bed. She instructed him to reveal his sleeve and started to work.

‘Don’t look so down, one little needle, and you will be back to yourself again.’

‘Yes, and then I will die in a month,’ he said calmly and she smiled at him a bit, ‘A pessimist then.’

He looked up at her and smiled a bit as well, ‘Yeah. Kind of happens when you are stuck in a maze for two and something years only to end up knowing you will die soon.’

She hummed at that, ‘Okay, well, you will get an extra month now…any plans?’

‘Take down WICKED,’ he said shrugging his shoulders, ‘Save the rest of the kids that are inside.’

She pressed her lips together.

‘You didn’t think you were saving me only to for me to get killed sooner, did you?’ he asked as he watched her face closely. She had a good mask, but even good masks slip.

‘This is my choice, what you do with your chance is yours,’ she assured him, but it still bothered her a bit. He could tell from the small wrinkle between her eye brows, but she also quickly pushed it away.

He kept on looking at her. He felt like he made her upset and should make up for it. He should talk about something else, ‘But I will try to life…can’t die yet. I didn’t do much life.’

She smirked, ‘Are there things you want to do before you die? Fun things?’

‘I guess, basic things. Have a good meal…like really good,’ she chuckled at that.

‘Have a night off, just no more WICKED talk or anything just to spend it with the people I care about, my friends.’

She nodded. It sounded nice.

‘Maybe kiss a pretty for once. You know making it special,’ he said before he had time to properly think about it. She looked at his eyes for a moment. It was a bad thing to say especially when he was so close to her and she was touching his forearm looking for a vein. This was seriously a bad thing to say.

‘I’m…sorry,’ he said shaking his head, ‘It’s not what I meant, doc.’

She nodded and looked away, ‘Yeah, I know.’

‘No, I’m sorry, that was….impropriate and rude.’

She nodded again looking at the window with the closed curtains. Something must have crossed her mind because she looked down at him and pulled him up.

‘Just…come on.’

She ran to the door and got the curtains to pull up.

She took him to the window. The night city was full of lights which illuminate in front of his eyes. He felt as if he saw the real stars for the first time. It was breathtaking. He got so taken he forgot to ask her why did she bring him her, until he felt her tucking at his wrist again. He didn’t realize she was still holding it with how soft her grip was.

She turned him a bit to face her, ‘Okay, just think about the way you feel right now by looking at that amazing view, okay?’

He blinked at her nodding a little bit hypnotized and confused by the moment.

She let go of his wrist and he instantly felt the absence of her touch. She put her hands on his face and stepped on her toes. This woman was ridiculously short. So petite. Even when he was sitting on the bed she was just barely taller than him. Such a short woman, yet she was mighty.

It was pretty much the last thought which crossed his mind as in a second later he had her lips against his. Oddly it didn’t startle him as he would have expected if this happened any other time. Her hands were so soft as she let her fingers stroke his cheeks. It was a soft kiss, nothing passionate or hungry as he saw some of his fellow survivors tried on their nights off.

No, it was sweet. It was the purest and profoundest thing anyone ever did to him, and he felt utterly in awe from the gesture.

When she let him go he slowly helped her to the ground. He didn’t even realize when his hands grabbed her waist until he felt like he should let her go. He found himself not wanting to.

She pressed her hand against his chest to slowly urge him to let her go. He didn’t but he felt her absence instantly. He looked down at her feeling himself completely lost as the night lights of the city shined on the side of her and his face.

She looked away a bit, ‘Well, now will you let me give you that shot, please?’

He found himself nodding, ‘Yeah, sure. Let’s get to the painful part.’

She chuckled a bit and went to turn on the lights and turn down the curtains. He was grateful for the dark as he knew that he was red as a tomato with how he felt in that moment.

He managed to calm down a bit, but as he came to sit on the table with her coming to in front of him he noticed that she was avoiding his gaze a bit and that her face was a bit reddish as well. But it might have been the play of the lights and his delusional mind from the Flare.

He felt like smirking a bit at that. Maybe he wasn’t completely terrible in it. He remembered back in Glade as they would goof around or have brave talk about stuff like girls, kissing and sex. Neither of them could remember if they ever even kissed a girl, but everyone had something to say so he wouldn’t look like some loser. He had something to say as well, but when her lips left his after possible the first kiss in his whole life, he felt incredibly low on self-esteem wondering if he didn’t mess it up. He hoped he didn’t even if it was a pity kiss.

She gave him the shot in silence. He took a deep breath the needle wasn’t so bad, but the process of feeling something change in his body was not pleasant. He almost fell backwards but she caught his shoulder, ‘Easy, it will take a few moments to kick in. Just breathe with me, Newt.’

He opened his eyes and watched her carefully. She had beautifully deep eyes like the ocean.

They breathed for a while, and he wondered how was it that he managed to get a crush on a grown _woman_ , who he knew for less than two hours.

‘Oh,’ he said softly and she leaned away, ‘You alright now?’ she asked and he nodded slowly. She took a stethoscope, ‘Shirt please.’

He reached behind his back for his shirt and pulled it over his head. He saw the purple veins slowly fading, he also felt a bit better.

She listened to his breathing and his heartbeat. She spent a good half hour around him until she looked fully satisfied, ‘Okay, I think you’re good.’

‘Great, thanks doc,’ he said and looked put the shirt back on. He turned back toward her.

‘Let’s see what the other two cooked for dinner now.’

* * *

**Claudia**

They ate and spoke a bit. Newt mostly explained what they have been up to since Minho was taken and how they ended up in the city. He looked shocked by the fact that Gally was alive the same way Cora was when he told her about some of hers friends who were with the Right Arm.

So many people apparently lived. She listened carefully to their stories trying to avoid talking. She only had stories of working for the WICKED and torturing kids like them. No one wanted to hear about that.

‘How did you ended up helping the Right Arm?’ asked Minho suddenly. She looked up from her plate, ‘I didn’t. I help the Lawrence’s people. They’re outside the walls.’

‘Okay, how did you ended up working for them?’

‘My uncle met one in the city through the passage they brought you guys in,’ she looked over at Newt, ‘I had good access since I worked in WICKED so I used it to help.’

‘Why though? Wouldn’t it be less trouble to just continue to help them?’ he asked suddenly.

She watched him. She already knew he was a strong person, he had to endure enough even he came to the City.

‘Tell me, when you were in the Glade it wasn’t always bad, was it?’ she asked, ‘When you were inside the walls. Life was good, you had a job cut out for you, you had food, friends, you worked hard, but it wasn’t a terrible life or was it? When you inside the Glade, not running the Maze?’

She sensed Newt tensing as he probably figured out where this was going.

Minho nodded, ‘It wasn’t terrible, but we were trapped-’

‘It wasn’t terrible and yet you went into the Maze and look for a way out,’ Claudia took a glass of water, ‘Just because somewhere isn’t terrible for you it doesn’t meant you want to stay there. Just because you have to work somewhere it doesn’t meant you agree with what your employer does. When you come work for WICKED, you are basically brainwashed to follow their agenda. They stuff you with enough BS about how they need you and how close they are to find the cure to save everyone that you believe them. The longer you work there, the more you realize it’s a lie, but you work there long enough and you have no choice. But you’re still human, I don’t anyone except for a few psychos likes hurting kids, but not everyone is brave enough to do something about it.’

She drank her water and put the glass back down, ‘I’m not special in way you think. There were others, exemplary killed to know what would happen if someone did something like this.’

‘You’re still here,’ said Cora.

‘For now, someone will find out. They always do, and when they do, I’m next,’ she said it so calmly. She had made her peace with that a long time ago. She knew how this would end long before she started. Everyone did. How could there be a happy ending after this?

‘You can come with us,’ said Newt.

I looked over at him, ‘I thought you were a pessimist.’

‘Why not?’

‘I’m the nurse who works at WICKED. Someone would kill me on the first night.’

‘Not if we told them the truth that you work for the rebels that you are -’

Cora was cut off when they heard someone knocking on the door.

‘That’s new,’ mumbled the girl.

Claudia stood up and pointed at the three of them to stay put. 

‘Who is it?’ she asked through the door. She couldn’t not answer, if it was someone who knew her, they would know she was supposed to be home that night. She couldn’t just lie about that.

‘It’s me, Carter.’

She felt like all the air was knocked out of her. She remained still however, and took a few deep breaths, before she opened the door, ‘Hi, sorry, but now it’s not a good time. I have visitors. My neighbors.’

‘Oh,’ he said looking a bit surprised, ‘The mother and son?’ he asked looking behind her head to see into the room. She could sense movement behind her. She didn’t actually see it but she could very well sense it.

She looked at Carter. She knew what he came for. It made her sick, but she knew. He wanted her. He wanted to spend the night with her. He had a wife at home, but he was the type that didn’t care. She led him on. She wouldn’t lie about that. She led him on pretending to be carefree and nice and polite to win his trust, and now he wanted something from her. That was how it worked.

‘Maybe some other time,’ she said faking the cheerful tone in her voice giving him fake hope. She didn’t know what really happened in the room behind her just that there was a sudden noise and Carton frowned, ‘What was that?’

He went right passed her as if she wasn’t even there, knocking the nurse to the side causing her to hit her shoulder against the door.

She rushed after him but he was already in the living room. Newt was there looking at him calmly, ‘Sorry, I knocked over the lamp.’

She watched as he took the item from the ground placing it on the small table next to her sofa.

She closed her eyes mentally preparing herself for what would come next. She knew it would.

‘Where’s your mom, John?’ asked Carter calmly.

He tried to play it off as best as he could. She would have to give him that, but there was no use Carter was already suspecting something.

She took a step back. He might have a gun. He surely had a gun. Maybe Newt could throw the lamp at him while she would get a knife. If he shot it wouldn’t matter if someone got hit or not someone would hear the _damn_ gun and contact the WICKED.

It happened so fast.

As she took a step back Cater brought out his gun pointing at her. She wasn’t sure what would he have done. If he just wanted to just scare her, but Newts didn’t wait. He took the lamp and hit him over the hand. The gun fell to the ground and Carter punched Newt. She let out a startled noise before she ran at Carter from behind. She didn’t know what possessed her. Maybe a dead wish of some sort. Maybe he would kill her and Newt and the others would kill him and in the end she would finally get some peace while helping people.

She was on the ground in a matter of moments. She felt his grip on her neck. She wouldn’t last long. She already felt like all the air was sucked out of her.

She saw his eyes. He was looking at her in a way, he looked at her that night. He knew. She knew he did. All this time, he knew something, but he enjoyed hurting her. He enjoyed knowing that he hurt her.

She wouldn’t last long. She tried to get his hands off her neck but he was too strong.

In the next moment she was sure she was going to be dead, but suddenly blood splashed on her face and Carter’s grip eased before his body fell on top of hers. It triggered a terrifying memory and you desperately tried to get underneath him, but he was too heavy.

Claudia finally felt like she could breathe when Minho and Newt dragged him from her. Newt helped her up grabbing her by the elbow.

‘Are you alright, doc?’ he asked looking her up and down. She nodded several times not sure at all, but it was good to stand on her feet with him standing her. She looked over at Cora and Minho. He was telling her something holding her face in his faces as she was breathing hard the knife still in her hand.

Cora looked down at the body. Well, this was bad.

She brushed her face and looked at her hand. There was blood. Yes, they were in deep trouble. Very deep.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

_Change Is Hard At First, Messy In The Middle And Gorgeous At The End – Robin Sharma_

* * *

**Claudia**

Claudia opened her eyes and only to find several kids glaring at her or looking frightened at her. They were on board of a jet running from the Last City at its destruction. She did her best to push everything away. Forget anyone she knew. Not attachment just survival now from the looks of it. She stopped paying attention to the kids and just pressed harder against Thomas’s wound as he still screamed and trashed.

‘Hey, I need you to hold him for me, okay?’ she asked the closest boy since Minho was helping Newt stay still as his head was bleeding badly.

The boy looked startled for a moment before he nodded and put his hands on his shoulder lightly at first before he gripped him hard. Another man came to help and she let go of the wound pulling off her coat.

‘You got some alcohol here? Anything.’

One of the man threw her a flask. She purred almost all of it on the wound and her hands.

 ‘This is gonna hurt.’

She didn’t have time to think about how terribly unsanitary it was before she dug her fingers into his wound. The boy let out an unhuman sound as she finally got it pulling it out.

He fainted once it was out. She threw it aside and she grabbed her lighter and pocket knife, her uncle gave her when she first started to work for the WICKED. She heated it up watching how the blade went red and how it was almost too hot to keep holding. She applied it to the wound causing the boy to wake up screaming again as she burned his skin alive for several moments, Just a little longer.’

Finally the wound got seared shut and Thomas collapsed into some girl’s arms. She didn’t even notice when did she came, but it didn’t matter. The looked down at the bullet and put it into her hand before she went to Newt.

Minho was helping him sit up as he was barely holding up.

‘Hey, let me see,’ she mumbled and put her hands on the side of his head.

‘Alba, we need to talk about Chuck,’ mumbled the boy suddenly before he leaned away and puked.

Someone made a disgusted noise while Minho flinched by his side, but Claudia shook her head, ‘He has a concussion from the hit.’

Claudia stopped paying attention to the glares and the whispers. She shouldn’t take it personally. She had work to do.

He suddenly took her wrist and startling her a bit. He leaned closer, despite the injury his face looked as serious as ever. She leaned closer as well worried about what he was going to say.

‘You’re so tiny, doc.’

Her eyes widened, and she could see the confusion on Minho’s face next to him. She managed to get his hand off her wrist and continued to help people around. It didn’t win her any favours, but at this moment she didn’t care all that much.

* * *

**Claudia**

‘How long have you’ve been working for WICKED?’

Claudia really wished she had a cigarette right now. Just one little cigarette. She would even share it if necessary. She just wanted one puff that nicotine smoke to gain some balance and focus. She felt so tired all the time even though she wasn’t doing anything. It could be from the time spending on the rusting ship, or maybe it was from what happened. The Last City had fallen, the WICKED main headquarters was destroyed. Everyone she knew was either dead or infected by now, and she was on a ship with kids who were vary of her at best or full on didn’t trust her.

‘Seven years. Before that there was training as a nurse in school. After that there was just school and work.’

‘Since what age do people work in the city?’ asked Jorge. Claudia just learned their names, but she was always good with learning things like that. She had to be.

She really wished she had a pack of her cigarettes which she left in her hidden spot in her kitchen. She really needed it right now more than anything. Instead she massaged her fingers and continued talking

‘Fourteen some fifteen. You got a letter with an open job you needed to fill. It was mostly given to you by a computer based on all the data which it had about you. Your skills, IQ test that kind of thing.’

She looked around. They asked or demanded that she would stay locked in a small room on the ship. She didn’t blame them. She understood why they didn’t trust her. She didn’t trust them either. They cared for their own, sure, but she was not their own. She was a nurse working for the WICKED. Well, an ex-nurse of WICKED. They let people in the city and behind the walls die. She let them all die.

‘How come you ended up as a nurse and not a doctor?’ he asked smiling, ‘You seem like quite the smart woman. You managed to save a bunch of kids under their noses all along so.’

‘I might have write some questions wrong just in case. I didn’t want to be a doctor there.’

‘Why not?’ he asked.

‘If something would to happen the doctors would be first to blame. We were nurses so we were pretty much invisible.’

‘So you were planning it from the start?’

‘No...but it wouldn’t hurt to have a plan B. I’m sure you can rely,’ she said and looked him into the eyes. She could tell an opportunist if she saw one. He smirked at her. He could see right through her as well.

‘Did you know what they were doing when you started?’ he asked the smirk still on his face, but the expression was serious now.

It was a low blow but whatever, ‘Yes. They made it sound noble as hell, but we all knew what we were getting into.’

‘Then why did you do it?’

‘Because it was the only way I could survive,’ she said knowing the truth behind her words.

Jorge crossed his arms, ‘If you wanted to survive so much why did you risk it for a bunch of kids you didn’t know?’

She really wanted a cigarette.

‘I knew them. I know every single one of them. I was working for WICKED for almost a decade. You know how many kids were butchered there? Just in that one facility? Hundred and fifty four which I know of. I have no idea how many were killed before that or during the trails. During the tests?’

She looked away trying to remember the taste of nicotine inside her mouth, ‘Once you start counting. You can’t stop, and once you can’t stop. You have to do something about it. If you’re still human that is.’

He watched her for a moment probably absorbing everything she told him. She could tell she caused a reaction. They were still worried about her. About what to do about her. She helped them, and yet they owned her nothing. She knew that. She lived in a world where morals could be lost or bend. She could be dead any day if they thought she was too much of a problem for the others. It didn’t matter if she helped in the end. Survival was everything in a world like this.

‘Do you have a cigarette?’ she asked. She didn’t think he smoke, but it was worth the try.

He smiled at her. ‘You’re quite intense you know that.’

‘I will take that as a _no_.’

He left after that.

It had been four days since the last City has fallen. It had been three days since she was stuck on the ship. She tried to go back to everything which happened in her mind. The screams, the blood, the explosion, the fall of the WICKED tower.

She opened her eyes. Looking at the ugly rusty walls of the ship, she knew it was all behind her, behind them, and she was still there. She never planned to survive till this point. She never expected herself to live to the point of seeing the WICKED down on their knees. She never expected to survive this all. She shouldn’t have survived it. It would have been easier if she didn’t.

* * *

**Newt**

The only time they Claudia her out of the room was when she was accompanied by someone and had to tend the injured. Which by now was only an unconscious Thomas and Newt with a concussion. He felt lightheaded a bit from time to time, but he was doing better. He didn’t remember much of what happened in the City once they got out. He remembered the fall, the shooting, and then Claudia waking him up, her eyes worried.

‘Hey, doc,’ said Gally every time. And she always shot him a look before she rolled her eyes and went to do something. The tall boy looked over at him and winked for some reason before he left the small room where they put Thomas and him. He would told him to slim it, but he was already gone, so he just looked over at Claudia.

Thomas was still asleep. He woke up once or twice but mumbled something incoherence and fainted.  He was a mess. They told him that she practically dug the bullet out of him. It seemed impressive. He only hoped he would get better. He was worried about him. He was his best friend, and it would be unfair that they survived but him. He saved their lives after all. He always tried to save everyone. It would be unfair if he wasn’t saved as well. He hoped he would get soon well.

Newt, who was constantly by Thomas’s side, looked at her, ‘How do you feel?’ he asked her every time she came, and it never failed to amuse her by the way she grimaced. He was the injured one.

‘Never better, you?’

‘I’m fine,’ he said and brushed his forehead a bit. She looked at Thomas for a moment before she walked up to him and nodded, ‘Show me.’

He gave her a look but allowed her fingers to push his hair away and pull down the bandage just enough to see the wound. She made sure she didn’t touch it as she examine it. He was silently looking away. He could still tell how close she was standing to him. He could feel how warm she was. He could tell a lot of things about her even without looking at her. He didn’t meet many women in his life. Not that he could remember, but he seriously doubted he ever met anyone like her. He never met anyone like her.

‘It’s healing alright. You’re lucky, you’re know?’

He shrugged his shoulders doing his best not to look at her, ‘As lucky as a not immune guy falling on the payment and smashing his head open can be.’

She smiled down at him, ‘And alive guy. So quite lucky?’

He smiled at her. Their eyes met for a moment before she went back to Thomas. Why was he feeling like this? It was pity kiss, and she was a woman. Older than him, more experienced, mature and yet he couldn’t help forming some sort of crush on her.

‘Are they still keeping you in the room?’ he asked concerned.

‘I don’t mind. It’s better that way,’ she said calmly. But he minded. He minded a lot. He didn’t like the thought of the others seeing her as a traitor, when she did nothing but helped for months. She rescued kids, a few of which were even on this ship, and he still caught how some of them acted or talked about her. He was worried about her being all alone in that small room, they asked her to say.

 ‘Maybe I can come later and keep you company,’ he said casually. She smiled as she fixed Thomas’s blanket.

‘Sure, but you don’t have to do it out of pity. I will have you know I have plenty of visits. Jorge, Cora, Gally, Vince even Minho.’

‘Minho?’ he asked surprised.

‘Yeah, he comes every now and then watches me for a few minutes asks me how I am and if I don’t need anything and then leaves,’ she said calmly before turned she back to him and raised her brows.

He didn’t understand what she meant so she chuckled and shook her head, ‘Never mind. I guess he needs to talk but doesn’t have it in him to actually do the talking. Maybe you can try? You’re best friends and everything.’

He nodded, ‘Sure. I’m surprised he went to you and not to me.’

‘I think he’s worried you’re still hurt. He doesn’t want to put on you more than he has to.’

‘He’s an idiot.’

She hummed and stepped closer to him, ‘I think you’re both being idiots.’

‘Why?’

‘Hm…maybe because the both of you want to actually talk about the same thing, but are keeping quiet for the other one’s sake?’ she asked and crossed her arms.

There was a knock on the door signaling that she had to go, ‘I will see you two patients later.’

‘Hey, do you have enough food?’ he asked quickly and she smiled a bit, ‘I’m fine. Just a few more days and you will be fine too,’ she put her hands into her pockets. She was so short and young looking. He could mistake her for a girl not much older than him. How old was she even? And did it matter?

‘Come see me afterwards, okay?’ she asked casually and somehow made his heart speed up just by a simple question. Gosh, he really did have a crush on her.

Newt tried to put together the pieces of the night before the city collapsed. They went in and met with rebels’ spy, who was Clara, a nurse working for the WICKED. The flare got him to faint and she took care of him getting him to her apartment where she was hiding Minho and Cora, a girl from group B. She gave him the cure...well the cure they had available for that moment which gave him borrowed time for the next month. Her colleague came and attacked him and her before Cora killed him. They had to leave, but the rebels got into the City destroying the wall. It was a war zone. People died, Thomas got taken, then rescued, then shot. Teresa died. He hit his head on the payment when he felt down. Everything after that was fogy, but Minho and Gally filled him in quite alright.

Still, all of that was nothing in a way. He lived in the maze. He got out of the maze, lost most of his friends. He escaped from the WICKED again. Went through the Scorch, survived countless days with the Right Arm. He still couldn’t believe at times he survived all of that and now was a boat going somewhere to a supposedly Paradise where they could be free.

And yet that was nothing compared to what happened. Claudia took him to the window and kissed him. He could barely remember anything else as well as he could remember the kiss...the feeling. He didn’t know why it felt like that or if it always felt like that when he kissed someone, but everything in the world was for that precious moment at completely balance and chaos at the same time. He felt his heart speed up every time he thought about her lips on his so soft, so perfect. It was everything. He never felt anything like that before, and he didn’t know how to feel about it now. She kissed him out of pity. That much he knew.

He smiled bitterly at the thought. But still it made him feel something, and now everything time he looked at her she was the most breathtaking thing ever. He looked at her, and he felt like suddenly the world had a new shade of colour in it, it didn’t before.

He lied back down. He hated not doing anything, but they told him that he had to. He just wanted some piece of the mind.

He crossed his arms over his chest. He never had a crush before. Well, sure there was that thing everyone felt when they first saw Teresa, but she was like the first girl ever for them to see, so of course they all felt something looking at her. She was a pretty girl. Strange and complicated but pretty and new for them. Now he met several girls and women and yet only looking and being with Claudia made him feel that way. Crushes were so strange. The fact that she was there was oddly enough for him. He just wanted her there in his life...or what little he had left.

_‘Come see me afterwards, okay?’_

Groaning he rolled to the side. He was seriously loosing it.

* * *

**Cora**

Cora watched the blue ocean underneath her. There were several kids on the deck. Vince told them yesterday that they would make it to land some time tomorrow early morning. She thought about the land. Their new home. A place they could all live away from the WICKED which was gone now. They would be safe there, would they also be happy there?

‘Hey,’ she heard by her side. She looked up to find Sonya walking toward her, ‘You okay?’

She nodded, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’

The girl nodded, ‘Right. I almost believed you with how down you look.’

The dark haired girl sighed, ‘It’s nothing. ’

Sonya nodded, ‘Yeah, right….look. I get it some _things_ just happened and they cannot be undone, but…this is not you Cora. You just talk to me or Harriet or anyone…I…’

‘Just stop,’ Cora shook her head, ‘You weren’t there, Sonya. You and Harriet ran without us….and I get that, but you did and you were not there. You got even off the damn train. I didn’t I was stuck there for months….just I can’t talk about _that_ with _you_. I’m glad you got out but you don’t get it.’

She shook her head taking a deep breath before she looked back at the blonde, ‘I need to go.’

She hurried away nearly crashing with Minho who looked surprised as he probably heard the entire conversation. She rolled her eyes upset and walked passed him away from anyone. She walked until she was the lowest part of the ship near the engine room.

The noise was a welcoming change from hearing her own thoughts. It blocked everything out. She sat down against the wall and closer her eyes letting the noise fill her mind and thoughts. She concentrate only on the noise calming down from what just happened and what was happening for a while now.

She left so lost...she felt like a part of her...the real her was still in the cell they dragged her to after the tests and experiments and she couldn’t deal with it. She started to cry the noises covered it so no one would hear her. She couldn’t feel this broken anymore. It just felt all too much at times. She felt so broken it actually hurt. They did this to her. They broke her like this, and she didn’t know how to fix herself again. But she had to.

She stopped crying after a while and calmed herself down. She had no choice, she had to stop and deal with this. She shook her head. She didn’t tell this to anyone. She couldn’t. She couldn’t let others fix her.  Not Sonya or Harriet or even Claudia or Minho...she had to do it on her own. She didn’t know how and she didn’t know when, but she would find a way to fix herself.

When she opened her eyes, she felt a bit better…well as better as she could. It had been four days since she killed someone for the first time and got out of the city. She never killed a human being before. She would punch them and be cheeky but kill them. Take a life even a life of a bad man was terrifying. How easy it is to kill someone. To hold their life in your hand and just take it?

She hugged her knees to her chest. It wasn’t just that. There was also the other thing. She couldn’t stop thinking about her time with WICKED either. It was all coming back to her. The nights in the cell, the pain from the experiments, the loneliness. It was starting to feel too much. Being here, with everyone who was in WICKED and everyone who was not just hurt so much. It was too much for her sometimes.

She slowly got up and decided to go see Claudia. A lot of them were still uneasy about seeing her there. Rumors spread fast and everyone knew who she was now. She was a bit worried, some looked especially pissed. No one did anything, but she had a bad feeling about the way some of them were talking about her. She wished they would reach land sooner. She needed to get out of the boat. She felt just as trapped as she felt inside the Maze, the WICKED, Claudia’s apartment. She felt like a prisoner. It didn’t help that she had Minho here this time.

* * *

**Minho**

He stopped in front of the small door to the room they kept Claudia. He felt a bit upset. It had been four days and whenever he ended up in the same room as Cora she ran away. He was...worried. He cared for her a lot. He...he wasn’t sure, but he knew he didn’t feel what he felt for her for just anyone. She kept him alive in the WICKED and he kept her. They...there was something which pulled them together. It made them bleed the same. Yet it felt and looked like they couldn’t have been bigger strangers toward each other.

He didn’t try to talk to her as he could tell her running away meant she didn’t want to speak with him. It was more than that. She didn’t want to be in the same place he was. She ran away from his presence. It felt like a kick into the stomach when she did that. Still, he couldn’t force her. He wouldn’t force. He wanted her to come to him, but he couldn’t ask that of her. She was her own person just like he was his. He had his own demons to deal with as well. He couldn’t hold it against her that she wanted to deal with hers on her own. He wanted to do the same.

Still...he couldn’t stop thinking about her and wanted her to come to him...he couldn’t stop feeling her mark on his mind, body and soul. That was what she did. She touched him in every place imaginable making them glow...it was hard to ignore that feeling.

He knocked and walked in. The nurse was sitting on the bed looking at the wall.

‘Hi, bored?’ Was the first thing she asked almost every day he came. Days felt so long and dragging on the ship.

He rolled his eyes. ‘You should come up with something new to say.’

‘I am a creature of strict routines can’t help it.’

She shrugged. ‘It’s what kept me alive all this time.’

He went closer and stopped by the bed. He would always take a place at the end of it as far away from her as possible. He would just always look at the same wall she was with a frown. It was quite nasty.

‘The smell getting worse,’ he pointed out breathing in the rotting smell on the ship.

‘It won’t be long,’ she replied. The conversations with Claudia were never meaningful. They were pointless almost. Yet, he came every day. Despite everything if cause him to feel a certain way to be able to talk to her when she was in that room. It made him feel a bit saner than he really was.

‘Did you talk to Newt?’ she asked.

‘Yes, he’s fine. The wound is healing. So is Thomas’s.’

‘I mean about the other thing?’ she asked and looked at him with her brows up, ‘You obviously want to talk about something or hope someone will brought it up so you can talk about it.’

‘I don’t want to talk about Cora with you,’ he said quickly.

The nurse brushed her forehead, ‘I _meant_ the other things. About Newt...about the cure?’

Minho looked over at her. She was far too smart for her own good, ‘I’m not sure what to say?’

‘Well, if you figure it out you can talk to me or Newt...but there is no right answer...no good way to feel about it.’

He didn’t know what to reply, so he stayed quite looking at the wall. It was inside him.

‘Did Cora tell you what’s wrong with her?’

‘No.’

‘Are you lying?’

‘That depends.’

He looked back at her.

‘She didn’t tell me, but I have a hunch and so do you,’ she told him.

‘What’s the hunch?’

‘That everything changed because you are not alone anymore,’ said the brunette as a matter of fact. There was no emotion in her voice. Her voice was monotone without any hit that would tell him how she felt or what she thought about it all.

Minho looked at the wall again. It was really a terrible looking wall.

‘It would have been easier if we just stayed the two of us... inside WICKED, or inside your apartment.’

‘Maybe, but this way there will be no doubt.’

He shook his head, ‘What doubt?’

She didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to. He knew. They both knew. The doubt was that what if they only connected because they were alone. What if what they felt was only because of them being together, just the two of them. What if it was never real? Just something caused by WICKED. Isolation and loneliness and some affection, some craving human contact?

The doubts ripped what was left of his mind slowly apart.

* * *

 

**Cora**

She watched Minho walked out of Claudia’s room and ducked behind the corner so he wouldn’t see her. She felt a bit bad about it, but she didn’t want to meet with him. It had been four days, and it was clear that they were in different places in the moment. Both of them had a lot to deal with. His friends were hurt, and she understood that he was worried and had to spent time with them. She had her things to deal with too, and it showed her that they were both loners in the end. Dealing with their things on their own. Or maybe she was just being selfish and she was running away and hiding from him too often for him to want to continue chasing her.

She moved from the corner and watched him leave. If he would turn around…just once he would see her and maybe she would tell him something. Maybe she would called him over. Maybe they would talk or say something to each other. But he didn’t turn around and continued to walk until he was out of her sight and she went to Claudia’s room.

She was mostly kept there on her own. It wasn’t like she couldn’t leave but they asked her now to. It made Cora worried that she was there unguarded with a few people who wouldn’t mind talking to her about WICKED or hurting her because of it. She heard the others talk shit about Claudia like she was the devil herself. She worked for WICKED but she was not the bad guy. She was the only good person in WICKED as far as Cora could tell.

‘So you came here to hide again?’ Asked the nurse calmly as she walked inside.

Cora frowned a bit, ‘Why would you say that?’

‘Because it is what you have been doing for the last few days. You spent here too much time for it to just be casual or friendly visit.’

Cora looked down at her hands. She didn’t try to argue but she didn’t try to talk about it. It was fine. She could take the silence as well, but Claudia surprised her, ‘Is this because of Carter?’

Cora looked at her again and found just how hard the other woman’s stare was.

‘Yes and no. It’s about everything which happened in the city, in WICKED. But I don’t want to talk about WICKED anymore.’

‘Okay.’

Claudia nodded. ‘Is what happened in city the reason why you’re hiding from Minho?’

‘I’m not hiding from anyone. And why would you ask me about Minho?’ She felt blood rushing to her cheeks and anger into her mind as she remembered what she forced Minho to do in Claudia’s bed.

The nurse raised her brows, ‘Because every time I asked either one of you about the other one he says he doesn’t know and you get angry.’

Cora tried to stare her down, but Claudia just continued to calmly look back at her. It was annoying how calm and reserve the nurse could be.

Cora shook her head, ‘I don’t know what to do...but I can’t face him...not yet. Things are different now. It’s different here and he has Newt and Thomas to worry about I don’t want to add anymore to his plate.’

‘So you rather have him suffer alone.’

Cora frowned.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘He has Thomas and Newt to worry about and he obviously is going through some other things. Things he is reserved to say since he doesn’t want to talk to an unconscious guy or worry a boy with a concussion. Think about that the next time you run away from him.’

Cora cheeks definitely were warm from embarrassment.

She stood up like a child feeling humiliated by an adult.

‘You don’t know everything, okay?’

‘So stop pretending you do, doc!’

The other woman watched her go in silence as she left her room slamming the door. Cora decided she would have to find another place if she wanted to stay away from everyone.

* * *

**Claudia**

She could almost fit in with them. She was relatively young twenty five years old. She was always short and petite which made everyone always assume she was younger.

She had her jacket and shirt and a pair of ripped jeans. She wasn’t dressed like a nurse from WICKED. She wasn’t dressed like the enemy, but then there were the kids that actually knew her, met her, saw her as a nurse who took their blood and strapped them down to the bed. They were kids. They wouldn’t understand that she had to do it. She wouldn’t either. She didn’t blame them. She didn’t blame WICKED. She blamed herself. There was good and there was bad and she stayed in the dark to make a bit of a light. To save a few kids. She made her choices, she had to live with that, but she didn’t expected to live this long.

It was ridiculous. She didn’t belong with them. She knew that. She would always be the enemy, the outsider to them…maybe it would have been easier if she didn’t make it, but then again she didn’t make it. She had twenty-eight days if her calculations were correct before the flare would cause her to well…die. She would probably kill herself before it would get too bad.

Oddly she was at peace with the prospect of death. WICKED was gone, the kids were safe. It felt liberating.

She was surprised when she heard the knock on the door. Usually everyone who came to visit her came once a day not more. She remained on the bed without a sound.

The door opened after a moment revealing a little boy, ‘Uh, can I came in?’

She didn’t recognize him. He looked about thirteen or so, but he wasn’t one from the WICKED tower. She remembered their faces, everyone one.

‘Can I help you?’ she asked. The door was suddenly opened wide and two more boys came in. These were older maybe Newt and Minho’s age. Eighteen? Nineteen? They closed the door leaving the younger boy outside.

Her heart started to beat fast again. This was a trap, an ambush. Maybe death would come sooner. She was okay with dying by the flare, but this...here? Right now? She didn’t...she didn’t know if she was sure she wanted to go right now...

One of the boys looked at the other one worried but the other one was looking at her with pure hate and anger.

‘You’re one of them, you bitch!’ he said and pulled a pair of scissors from behind him. Claudia knew once again what would happen. She raised her arms in defence as the boy lashed out on her.

Her cry echoed through the hallways.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry it took so now. I know it is kind of short but the next one will be longer promise :) Hopefully I will have the next one soon. :3
> 
> Enjoy

 

_'Ah, those two. In a fight, they're lethal. Around each other, they melt.' - Richelle Mead, The Golden Lily_

* * *

**Newt**

Newt sat up and looked at Thomas. He was still deep asleep. He barely remembered the flight, but Minho and Vince said Claudia saved Thomas's life. He had a concussion and puked a couple of times even on Claudia. He felt embarrassed. Thomas on the other hand was missing out on everything which happened. Newt hoped he would wake up soon and cause some more trouble. Still, even without him he was getting into plent of trouble just by watching a certain pretty and petite woman with brown hair and thinking about her soft lips against his and night lights of a now fallen city.

_Get a grip!_

The door opened without a knock and Minho stepped inside. He looked pissed and tired which happened to be his daily look nowadays.

'What got you in such a good mood, sunshine?'

'Slim it.' Said the boy as he threw himself on the spot next to him. He looked over at Thomas. 'Do you think that shank is ever planning to wake up?'

Newt shrugged his shoulder, 'Can't say I blame him. It must be nice not know what is going on in the real world. Also considering what happened with Teres-'

'Do not say her name in front of me,' he shook his head, 'She...just don't, please.'

Newt watched Minho started to sweat slowly, 'Right, sorry. I wasn't thinking.'

The other boy nodded lost for a moment before he calm himself and looked at him, 'What about your head?'

'Well luckily it didn't affect my intellect,' he said smugly knowing Minho would use it, 'Trust me there isn't much to affect.'

Newt shoved him a bit and Minho chuckled. It almost felt like old times. Almost.

'What do you think it will be like?'

'Kind of like the maze and yet nothing like it,' mumbled Minho. He looked at his hands for a moment, 'How do you feel? Did the serum worked?'

Newt looked over at him again. It was strange Minho decided to talk about it now, 'Temporarily yeah. Claudia said it gives us a month at best, but it's something.'

Minho felt the same puzzling pain he did before, and about what Claudia told him. Damnn she had a good way to read people.

'I...I'm sorry.'

The other boy looked at him, 'About what?'

'About you...not being immune,' said Minho, 'About how that...makes me feel.'

Newt looked at his hand which he held into fists, 'I... understand, Minho. You don't have to say anything.'

'Yeah, I do, I...I can't help it. It's like I fell sick to the stomach every time I think about people like you, Brenda and Claudia, but...I never wanted this...I used to curse the cure like I wished all the people not immune would just..die,' he confessed standing up to hid his face.

'I know that is a terrible thing to think, but Gosh, Newt...'

'It's okay, Minho,' Newt stood up, 'I have no idea what it was like to be there. Tested, experimented on. I'm sorry...and I would never blame you if you hated every not immune person because you had to go through all of that for us. I really wouldn't blame you if you hated me,' he said honestly. He often thought about immunity and what it meant. He could die, he was meant to die soon, anyway, but still he wouldn't hate the immune for not being one of them. That was life. Some had something others didn't and it was always like that. It didn't meant to hate someone who had something. Especially if they weren't to blame.

'But that's the thing. I don't hate you...you're my best friend. I could never hate you, and I feel terrible for feeling that way about it. I...I don't know what to do.'

'It's fine. I think it's the same as with how people see doc...they hate her even though she was working inside WICKED to help us. I get what you guys would hate the immune.'

'It's still not right...'

'But it's how you feel, Minho. No one can tell you how to feel about what happened to you. You were hurt. It's your pain, it's your recovery.'

Minho watched him silently before he nodded. He never wanted Minho to feel sorry for how he felt about this, when he would have felt the same. In the end it didn't matter in less than a month he would be dead.

They shared a look just as suddenly heard a female scream echo the hallways.

Minho rushed from the bed before he could stop himself. Newt quickly followed. They met a couple of people standing outside of the hallway.

'Where did it come from? Who was that?' asked Newt looking around everyone looked alright, but someone was screaming. Most of the door was closed.

There were five people in the hallway, but his eyes landed on the small boy who was nervously looking anywhere but at the two boys.

Newt turned to Minho who was still looking around and nodded his head at the boy.

Minho looked at him and walked closer, 'Yo, you know something?'

_So much for a gentle approach._

'Look, we just want to know what's going on,' said Newt hoping he sounded like someone trustful.

The boy looked from one to another before he said, 'They made me do it. They said...she's with WICKED and she deserves to pay just like the rest of them...she...they're inside.'

The boys didn't need more. Minho rushed to Claudia's door. He tried to break in, but the door was barricaded with something 'DOC! Come on, doc, open up!'

Not a sound came out. Newt felt like he couldn't breath, 'We need to get into the room some other way.'

'Yeah, by stepping aside,' said Jorge as he came from the hallways and pulled out a gun.

He shot through the door, 'What are you doing?!' asked Newt horrified before he pushed the man away.

'Showing who is in charge,' said the man, 'This is wasn't going to happen. You went against a defenceless single woman. So you're not too much on the whole respect and honour thing. So you must be cowards. How about you open the door and I won't shot you on the spot.'

Silence. It was endless in Newt's mind.

Suddenly there was noise like something broke and the door opened.

'Freaking bitch,' shouted one of the boy as he was rushing somewhere behind the door another boy was on the ground covering his face.

Jorge pointed a gun at him, 'Aaa, not one more step, hermano.'

Newt rushed inside and looked around. The room was a mess, but he couldn't see Claudia anywhere until he looked behind the door. There she was pressing herself into the wall and using the door as a shield.

'Hey, hey, come, it's okay now,' he said and quickly kneeled in front of her. Her shirt and pants were bloody.

'Hey, come here,' he hugged her around the back pulling her close. She looked like a frightened animal.

She breathed out like she was finally safe. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder, 'I need something to stop the bleeding.'

He looked at the hand she was holding by the wrist. It was cut deeply and bleeding heavily.

'I will faint if I don't.'

'Here,' said Minho and handed her the first AID kit as Jorge and another boy took care of Claudia's attackers.

She calmly instructed the two boys how to fix her hand, Newt could feel her shaking against him as the adrenaline must have been wearing off. He noticed the bloody scissors lying on the ground imagining how they must have show them to her and threaten her.

His fingers stroked her hair and massage her scalp a bit, 'Hey, you're safe now.'

She looked at him. Her clever eyes showing a bit of vulnerability he never saw before.

The woman nodded slowly before she let out a sigh and pressed herself against him again. If nothing else Newt knew she trusted him. She trusted him enough to hold her and keep her safe. It meant everything to him.

* * *

**Cora**

'What's going on?' asked one of the kids as a group of them were standing in front of the hallway. Cora tried to look around the tall boys and girls. Jorge and another boy, who's name she didn't know were covering the entrance to the hallway. Something bad must have happened.

'Nothing happened,' said Jorge, 'Don't bullshit me. I can tell something happened. You locked two guys up. What did they do? Got into a fight?' asked Brenda.

Cora could see how annoyed the man looked. They were trying to cover what happen up not let everyone know. It was something bad.

'Is that Minho bleeding,' said Brenda suddenly and something inside Cora's mind went dark. She pushed her way through the crowd, 'Cora, stop.'

She managed to dodged Jorge's attempt to stop her and rushed to the boy, 'Minho!'

He turned around as he heard her call his name. She crashed into him. She was fast. She almost knocked him to the ground. They moved a bit backwards as he put his hands on her arms pulling her a bit away.

She immediately had her hands on his body staring at the blood on his hands and side, 'Are you...?' Could he see her hysteria in her eyes which she could feel in her heart at the thought of him being hurt?

'It's not mine. I'm fine. I promise.'

Cora looked into his eyes and then back at the blood, but it was true. He didn't have any wound at least not a visible ones. She raised her eyes meeting his, 'What happened? Is everyone okay?'

'Brenda!' called Jorge as the girl managed to get to Cora's side in front of Minho. Cora instantly pulled her hands away realizing she was holding onto him. Minho's eyes revealed hurt, but he didn't say anything.

'What happened?' asked Brenda.

'Claudia got attacked by two assholes. They stabbed her with scissors. She managed to fight them off though. They put her in Thomas and Newt's room now.'

Cora shook her head, 'Who was it? Who?!'

'It doesn't matter. They're locked up.'

'For now! If they went after her once they will do it again.'

'You know it's not that simple, Cora,' said Minho, 'You know she worked for WICKED.'

'As a double agent to get us out.'

'Not everyone knows or can accept that...'

'Then those people should go jump into the ocean.'

They stared at each other. It didn't take much to make Cora realize they were both very difficult and strong personalities.

She raised her chin stubbornly, 'They should be punished. In the maze if you hurt someone. You ended up sleeping outside in the snow.'

'They're just angry...'

'And that's an excuse? What if they decide to hurt someone else? What if someone else upsets them? Wouldn't you be the first one who would want their heads if they hurt someone else? Someone who actually matters to you? Newt? Thomas?'

_I won't say me._

She glared at him, 'Fucking hypocrite. You go talk to Claudia every day and yet you don't really care for her.'

'Slim it!'

'No, you rather they kill her so you wouldn't have to deal with it. I thought you were better,' she said. She knew she was being cruel now.

'Don't put words into my mouth!'

'Then say it's not true.'

'It's not.'

'Okay,' cut in Brenda, 'You two need some time on the other sides of the ship. This is pointless. No one said anything about Claudia, Cora, and we will figure out a better punishment for them. But you're not in the Maze or WICKED anymore and Claudia is one of us now. A survivor. We'll figure this out,' said Brenda in a rational manner.

Cora watched the girl before she looked at Minho he seemed to agree with the shorter girl.

She nodded and turned to leave. She needed some time to calm down on her own.

* * *

**Minho**

He shook his head annoyed as he watched the tall girl leave. She was so...frustrating he wished he got to punch the assholes which attacked Claudia.

Cora completely...

She totally...

She just...

She's so...

_Shuck!_

He couldn't even describe how he felt. He looked over at Brenda who was looking at him a little bit amused.

'What?' he snapped at her and she raised her hands in defence, 'Nothing, just never saw an old married couple fight.'

He frowned, 'Slim it.'

She chuckled, and he went to leave as well to the opposite direction. What the hell was her problem? She...she just...fucked him, well let him fuck her and now she was acting like she hated even the thought of being near him and then she went and run to him all worried when she thought he was the one who was hurt. She was so freaking confusing? Why were girls like that?

He stopped at the end of the hallway and put his hand into his hair. Claudia said Cora was like this because things changed. Because they were no longer two alone teens in her nice apartment. Maybe this was how she always was and the thing they felt in WICKED and the apartment was just some faze. Maybe it wasn't even real.

He noticed Vince and Gally talking and walked to them.

'Have you decided what to do with those two?' he asked nodding at the door where they had them locked up.

'Sort of,' admitted Vince, 'But it isn't a good decision.'

'I don't think any decision is a good one right now.'

* * *

**Claudia**

' _You're one of them, you bitch!'_

That's what the boy told Claudia as he stabbed her into the hand. She cried out in pain and manage to stumble backwards. She got the scissors out, just as one of the boy put a chair against the handle so it wouldn't open from the other side.

'Not so brave now are you?' demanded the one who stabbed her. He tried to touch her, but she raised the scissors pointing them at him.

'I should tell you I could how to make you bleed out with just one cut!' she blurred out. It was a lie. A tactic. She could feel the she was quickly losing blood. She wouldn't last long definitely not with two boys against her. One of them got the scissor from her and got her to the ground. He was on top of her pinning her down and it felt like the time froze.

When she finally heard Minho and Newt it was like a blessing from hell. She managed to get the boy off her and hit him with one of the damaged pipes lying around.

She opened the door and hid behind it until Newt put his hands around and made her realize she was saved. Strange…only one man made her ever feel safe. The man who took her into his arms as a little girl and carried her into the walls of the Last City. Her uncle.

Now Newt slowly guided the woman to his room and bed. Oddly she had a feeling she would late him take her even to hell right now.

'Careful.' They agreed without her say in it that she would stay with someone 24/7 now. The two boys were locked somewhere away. What would happen with them was undecided. She knew how this would end. Either they would punish them and she would be the bad guy again hated even more or they would let them walk and she would be force to walk on eggshells until they would finally manage to kill her for real. Dying quickly by choking or being stab to death didn't seem like such a bad idea now.

'You know it's my hand that's hurt not my legs,' she said. It wasn't bitter or mean just a matter of fact. She could be so composed and reserved. She could look like she didn't care at all even when she wanted to freak out and cry, but she couldn't. She wouldn't in front of him. She couldn't in front of anyone.

He looked at her, 'Yes, I am aware, I also know you lost a lot of blood.'

She hummed, 'Okay, I can't argue with that.' The wound wasn't that bad. The fear of almost dying was worse. Far worse.

He put her down on the bed. Thomas was still in his bed. He missed everything. Claudia looked over at him, 'Maybe I did something wrong while trying to save him…I can't tell anymore.' She wished she could be unconsciousness now too.

Newt followed her gaze, 'I think you did the best you could given the circumstances. Also I'm fine so at least one of you patients is okay.'

She smiled a little bit, 'Fair enough. I must be really looking shitty if you're giving me such a strong pep talk.'

He leaned closer and touched her hair pulling it from her forehead, 'Just a little bit pale still pretty though.'

She had to bit the inside of her mouth from smiling like an idiot after that. Good thing there was the blood loss to keep her from blushing.

They watched each other for a moment before he broke the contact and set down on the bed next to her. It was a good thing he did cause she found it hard to look away from his dark brown eyes.

'Will you tell me what happened?' he asked looking at the bandage on her hand.

She was looking in front of her, 'They came into the room one had scissors, and one cut me.'

'More like he tried to stab you and when you were covering your head it got your palm,' he said and this time she smiled, 'What is this calling me out on my bullshit day?'

'If you're saying bullshit then yes,' he said calmly before he looked up at her, 'Why won't you admit what happened? They wanted to kill you,' he said feeling the anger boiling inside him once more. She was a single woman defenseless and they even brought a weapon on her.

She shrugged her shoulders, 'It's not like half of this ship isn't thinking the same thing.'

He frowned, 'Well, then it is the other half that counts.'

'I'm pretty sure that half hates me too just isn't vengeful enough to do something,' she said and wanted to bite into her tongue. Why was she telling him this?

'Not me, or Minho or Cora or Thomas, Gally, not us.'

'That's because you see a person not WICKED. Not everyone can see that.'

'They should…and you should tell me what happened. They tried to kill you,' said Newt and stood up upset. She gave him an unfazed look, 'You really think it will do good if I start arguing and being difficult about it?'

He shot her a disbelieved look, 'You can't be serious thinking you making someone pay for hurting you is being difficult.'

'It is when you're someone who worked for the enemy. Me being here…it's a not good thing. It will be a hard thing. Every day I will have to prove myself to everyone…,' she looked at the hand, 'Maybe I shouldn't have come. Maybe I shouldn't have come with you to the jet.'

There was silence for a moment. He was looking down at her but she couldn't look up at him. Not right now, not when she felt like she was right. She came to people who thought she was the enemy. They didn't want her among them and it was possible they would sacrifice her every chance they get. What if she wasn't strong enough to live like that? Living with a mask was familiar to her…life without a mask where everyone knew who she was…wasn't.

'Would you rather be dead? Don't even suggest that. Please don't say that the woman who saved my life wants to die,' he said. He didn't move toward her. He didn't shout. In face his voice was sort of soft.

Claudia pulled herself together and smiled at him, 'No. I'm fine. I'm just overthinking things. Besides we'll be dead in a less than a month anyway.'

She stood up, 'I should go.'

He took her wrists blocking her way. His hands over hers so soft and warm, 'Please sit down, doc.'

She looked at him. Why was a teenager so tall? Why was she so tiny compare to him?

His eyes fell into hers once again it was magnetic.

'Don't…do that…don't pretend please…don't do it for my benefit or something,' he whispered. How could his voice be so…sensual? Why were his eyes so dark? She went back to the night in her apartment where she kissed him for the first time…for the first time in his life. She remembered how it felt. It was a while since she had any human contact before…any real contact intimate contact. Any contact like the one she felt just then.

Her throat went dry.

He was always tall but in that moment, he felt so much taller, and she felt so small. Like she was a small child compare to him. She had to look up at him and he had to look down at her. It looked like he was the adult. Ridiculous. She took care of herself since she was a kid. She was never a real kid…but neither was he…he was a child of the WICKED and those weren't real children, just subjects.

His thumb softly stroked her wrist, and she felt the breath got stuck in her throat as her heart jumped. What the hell was he doing? She was no stranger to physical contact and sexual, but it was so long since she craved it…and it definitely never involved an eighteen year old boy with the longest fingers she ever saw.

He titled his head a little bit to the side and she blindly followed his movement like a sunflower turns to the sun.

'I see you,' he whispered and she felt her chest raising up and down as she started to breath fast.

'I see you, Claudia.'

He leaned down and their lips touched. They didn't close their eyes. They kissed while looking at each other. When she was a teen her partner in school told her that she always had to close eyes because seeing someone's face up close was awkward. It didn't feel weird. It felt like nothing she ever felt before. It was like she saw him in a different way, and she had a feeling he did too. His lips were soft. He kissed so purely inexperienced. It felt the more honest than it ever did. She was never kissed so real. She was never kissed like this. One of his hands let go and went into her hair. She let her free palm rest against his chest. He might have looked skinny not muscled like other man, but he was very solid. She opened his mouth with her pressure and let her tongue feel the inside of his. He shivered under her hand before he repeated the motion. She closed her eyes than as she felt his tongue against hers. It was sensational.

Someone groaned in pain and they broke the kiss. Claudia took several steps back. They both looked to the side where they found Thomas moving slowly, 'T…T-teresa.'

Claudia looked at Newt who for a moment shared the look before they rushed to the boy's side.

'Thomas? How are you feeling? Do you feel pain somewhere?' asked Claudia pulling away the blanket to look at his wound.

'My stomach...what happened? Newt?' he asked as he opened his eyes. The boy took his hand, 'I'm here, Tommy. You're fine now. You got shot, but doc patched you up.'

She ignored the nickname and rather made sure Thomas's bandage was in place.

'How do you feel?' asked Claudia.

'I guess I'm sort of okay…where's Teresa?'

Claudia looked over at Newt who understood she was silently asking him if he wanted to tell him or if she should.

The boy licked his lips, 'Tommy, do you remember what happened? The building collapsed. Teresa didn't make it. She saved your life.'

Thomas watched him for a moment before he closed his eyes. Claudia heard as he started to wipe softly. Newt moved closer making comfort. She looked over at him and then at Thomas. As the boy was drowning in his grief she stood up and sat down on the next to his side. She didn't know him that well, but she stayed with him until he calmed down.

If she noticed Newt's silent glances every now and then she ignored them. There was a grieving and injured boy for Christ's sake.

* * *

**Cora**

She came up on the main deck when someone suddenly shouted.

'LAND!'

She rushed to look closer as many others and really there was a small piece of island land which there were slowly getting closer to.

Land.

Home.

Paradise.

Everything would change again. Wouldn't it?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the support. Sorry it is taking so long.   
> Enjoy

_A girl once told me_

_To be careful_

_When trying to fix_

_A broken person_

_For you may cut yourself_

_On their shattered pieces_

* * *

**Claudia**

Claudia looked at the small dose of blood Thomas handed to her a couple of moments ago. It was a sample with by his words Teresa took right before he got shot. The sample had already processed to be made into a cure, but Claudia instantly knew it wasn’t perfect, and she would surely not be able to duplicate for more dosage. Not while they were on an island with minimum means of technology.

She looked at the boy. He was slowly recovering, but it still wasn’t great. She was surprised though. He managed to survive the worst. They finally arrived to the island, the Paradise, and started to form a sort of society and home there. Right now they were in the first building/place they managed to build the infirmary. It was decent enough given their conditions. It had roof and walls which was basically all the nurse could ask for.

She looked at Thomas, ‘You do realize at if anyone survived and knew about this they would come for you? They would kill all the others. They would just want you.’

The brown haired boy nodded, ‘Yeah, I’m aware.’

He looked a bit nervous at his blood, ‘Can you do it? Can you save Newt and yourself with it?’

She grimaced, ‘I don’t need saving.’

‘Let’s not-’

‘But yes, it might be good to give it a try for Newt,’ she moved to the table, ‘If I will get him here for some fun time with the needle.’

Thomas grinned a bit, ‘Shouldn’t be a problem to get him here.’

She didn’t even dare to show any reaction, but yeah, it caused her to think a bit. Think back to their second kiss on the boat right before Thomas woke up. They hadn’t talked about it, yet and Claudia was doing her best to avoid the redhead a bit since then. She didn’t particularly look forward to discussing what happened. It was the heat of the moment for her. She didn’t really want to think about it or him and that way. He was younger than her and had his whole life ahead of him. She already knew what would happen to her. She would get the flare and kill herself before hurting someone. That was just the way life will end for her. She wasn’t a character in some great survivor story. No, she was just one of the necessaries victims before the world with heal again.

She didn’t know what possessed her to kiss him back, but it couldn’t happen again. It was…it wasn’t okay. She was older than him for once, and she was…she just was too much of a trouble for him.

She carefully examined probably the only and last known cure for the flare before she looked at Thomas, ‘I think I can give it to Newt.’

Thomas frowned, ‘What about yourself?’

‘There might not be enough,’ said the nurse as a matter of fact. It wasn’t like she believed she had any right to live that long anyway.

Thomas shook his head, ‘Don’t even think about it. You’re our only medical person around. We need you. Not to mention you seriously think Newt will take it if you don’t? He will rather do something stupid like force it down your throat than to let you die.’

She looked at the blood again. It sounded about right.

‘Okay, I will see what I can do,’ she lied easily convincing the boy with a small smile. She hoped it would be enough to convince Newt as well.

Her whole life she lived on convincing smiles and face laughs. She was good at it. She got into WICKED and worked there for years kidnapping and freeing kids from their claws. She had to be a good liar. She really did. She knew she could pull of the façade in front of Thomas, Gally even Cora. Newt? A couple of weeks ago she would be sure she could trick him as well, but now it wasn’t so clear. She just…she felt like she actually allowed him to see a piece of her and now he will know when she wasn’t being sincere. She would have to find another way to get him to just take the stupid cure and not die. She just wasn’t sure how yet.

Still it wasn’t just her.

It was also Jorge and Vince and other people, adults mostly who weren’t immune. They needed the cure. She knew she was good in medicine. She managed to make WICKED most experienced and brilliant doctors believe the kids were dead when really their heartbeat and pulls was slowed down. Yet, with one small sample of blood to create the cure for several people and more to come?

With all her skills she wasn’t sure she could do it in such a short time. From what Thomas told her everyone in the world who wasn’t immune would have been dead in two months time now, Newt and her even sooner.

Once the wonder boy left she looked around the poorly working hospital if that was even possible to call at this point.

She was a dead woman either way. Maybe it would hurt to try save some more lives before she would go.

She walked to the table with the blood and hesitated opened it taking a sample. She needed to duplicate it before the end of the month. She wasn’t even sure she had so much time left.

Claudia looked away for a moment.

In total there were seven people of which she knew they were not immune. One of them was Brenda who was cured so that left her and Newt who had at least the incomplete cure, Vince, Jorge, Victoria and Otis also one of the kids who said they kept him separated in the cell due to this.

She looked back at the sample and started to work.

‘One last try to try and save some lives,’ she told herself.

* * *

 

**Cora**

The girl with short hair was standing next to Sonya and a new girl called Joyce with a bowl in her hand. Apart from the small infirmary for Claudia so far the only other building partly built was the sleeping quotes which was just a large four walls building with a roof over it working as a place to sleep for over one hundred and six kids according to Vince.

On the first day they created a council board consisting out of ten people all of which had some greater position in the rescue from WICKED.

Vince, Jorge, Newt, Thomas (when he would get better), Minho, herself, Gally, Sonya (because she took care of people in the rest of theirs absence), Nelly and a spot left for Claudia who stubbornly kept on refusing it and only agreeing to come if it was a medical emergency.

Since the attack, they people behind it were kept locked up in a prison like room guarded all the time. They were given two months punishment and were ban from talking or ever getting near Claudia again.

The little kid came to apologize to the nurse telling her he didn’t really think she was a bad person. It was sweet, but Cora could tell it didn’t help Claudia feeling less like an outsider. Nothing would.

Yet, the attack had one big pro, everyone suddenly realized that if they did managed to kill Claudia they would have been left completely without any doctor or medical person on an abandon island. It was clear that even people who weren’t too happy about the former nurse from WICKED stay, had agreed that it was in everyone interests to keep her there and alive.

At least one good thing came out of it.

Anyway, apart from their _bedroom_ and the medical bay, they had sort of a kitchen with was basically people/cooks cooking in open fire and people eating around wherever they found a place. Near them the girls were boiling water to wash the dirty bowls and give them to new people.

As Cora took her food she asked the girl whose name was something like Annabel, ‘Did Claudia came to eat yet?’

The girl thought about it for a second before she shook her head, ‘No, but she usually comes later when almost everyone has already eaten.’

Cora nodded not too surprised and Claudia always tried to stay away from people even before the attack. That was how she managed to do so much behind the WICKED’s back. Always in plain side and yet hidden.

She walked somewhere she spotted Sonya and Aris and sat down next to them. They chatted a bit casually about their work. Everyone did their part. People were building, cooking, planting or bringing water from the near waterfall all day. Everyone had something to do just like it used to be in the Maze. She was glad for it. She could see how many things needed to be done in this place. It was a mess.

She spotted the boys working on the nearby roof. She knew it was supposed to be the kitchen/ cafeteria and that they were also making a stew there. She caught glimpse of Minho’s hair and watched him for a moment. He had his back turned to her, but she could easily recognize him by now. Just in the few months they spent in WICKED she memorized him completely his appearance, presence and behaviour. He probably did the same, but with her mood swings it was impossible to follow. She couldn’t understand herself either.

When she continued to eat she noticed a redhaired girl was looking there as well. There were several boys up on the roof so it could have been that she was looking at anyone else, but a part of Cora still asked her what if she was indeed looking at Minho. It felt weird. It felt almost painful to think that with time he would grow tired of this game of hers and find someone else. Someone less damaged or weird or overly complicated who he could just spent and be with. Given how she was asking now, it might as well happen.

She suddenly didn’t feel like eating anymore and asked Aris if he wanted her bowl. He took it asking her like four times if she was sure and if she wasn’t hungry.

She was confused, not by Minho, but by herself. She didn’t know how she felt now. Once again there were people around. People who knew her back in the Maze and who knew him. They were all in the same new Paradise, home, whatever, but it still felt…like they were in groups. Groups of us and them, and Cora wasn’t sure she could just go to his group or ask him to come to hers. She wasn’t sure she could commit to him like that when some days she felt like she didn’t even want to see him or anyone else. She didn’t what it meant. She didn’t know the hell was her problem, but she knew she couldn’t do that to him. She just couldn’t.

* * *

 

**Newt**

‘Just go eat!’ was the last thing Cora told him before she shoved him toward their fire. He wanted to continue to work and eat later but obviously there was nothing to be down with that. They had been planting all day every day since they arrived. Everyone was working or helping. It was good. It reminded him of the Glades which was good. He watched as even the little kids were working together in slower paces to help them making their home a place they could stay and survive for a long time.

His mind drifted to the imaginary calendar in his head counting down the days before his flare would once again shot itself.

Not many knew about it, and he was glad for it hoping no one would find it so it wouldn’t cause a total panic. He knew that if the time came he would just stop fighting all together and let the death take him, until they he hoped to do some work to help the others live a bit longer.

Cora casually not so casually mentioned that Claudia hadn’t eaten yet. He had seen the nurse a lot since then, but it was always with someone around, and always about some sort of important Paradise matter, never just because. They haven’t spoken about the kiss, and he caught the sense that she wouldn’t even want to talk about it. He could tell that even if she kissed him back it wasn’t like she was fully into it at least not once the kiss had ended, while he on the other hand was completely consumed by it. He knew he shouldn’t push her, but he kind of wanted to. He wanted to talk about it, he wanted to do it again. Both of them had limited time on the earth, and for lack of better words, he wanted to make the most of it.

He stopped on his way to the small shedlike building and turned around to look at the horizon. It was really a Paradise. He wondered for a moment how would it look in a year when most of the work would be done, or five, or ten, or fifty when perhaps most of his friends would be gone and maybe only their kids would remain. Would this be a new home of the remains of humanity in this world.

He walked into the shed and walked inside after a short knock.

‘Hello,’ he said as he found the brunette frowning down at something in concentration. She looked up at the sound of his voice not even noticing he had knocked before. She looked…tired and a bit down, but as she saw him she quickly put on a different face on. A calm face. He knew she did that a lot with everyone including him, but he liked to think he could spot her act if he really looked closely.

‘I brought you dinner since clearly you forgot again,’ he said and set it on the spot on the table which didn’t looked covered in papers and things.

Claudia smiled, ‘I was going to. I just wanted to wait till it cleared out a bit.’

He frowned a bit before he looked at all the papers and tools, ‘What are you doing here anyway?’

‘Researching the blood samples to determine who is immune and who not,’ she said calmly looking at him.

He watched her for a moment before he asked, ‘So they would be prepared?’

‘That and so they wouldn’t hurt people when they get the flare,’ she looked at a formula on one of the notes, ‘I think it would be better for everyone.’

He nodded, ‘Sure.’

He pulled an empty box from the boat closer and sat on it pulling his bowl closer to him. When he looked up he noticed her staring back at him, ‘What?’

She smiled a little bit and shook her head, ‘Nothing, thanks for the food.’

‘Well, don’t thank me yet. It still has a lot before it will be decent food.’

He tasted it, ‘Yep, still not great.’

She smirked, ‘Well, to be fair food in the city wasn’t perfect either. It was modified and never enough.’

‘Yeah, I remember from the time we were _saved_ it was different than how it takes in the glades,’ he said before he looked at the papers she neatly set to the side and took the bowl, ‘How many people do you have so far? How many people are not immune?’

‘Twelve,’ she said. He knew that over the course of a week everyone was obligated to come for a checkup, and she made file on every single member of the Paradise. He knew this because he was personally there when she did the file and checkup of her attackers who were still locked up. Neither for them said anything now their bruises healing a bit by now.

One was staring at her hand which only had a scar left now but didn’t say anything. It still didn’t help Newt to feel safer about it, about her. He wasn’t the only one there with Jorge and another boy named David acting as Claudia’s personal watchdogs until the two were brought back to their little holding.

He swallowed a bit, ‘That’s a lot.’

‘Yes,’ she said and brushed her forehead before she started to eat. Her mind was obviously on something else.

‘Did you tell them yet?’

‘Yes,’ she said and looked at him, ‘Most of them took it pretty well. Most of them already knew it by now.’

‘But you’re still worried,’ he said softly, and she smiled bitterly but didn’t look at him.

She didn’t start eating, and he noticed. He always noticed little things about her. He watched her closely. He doubted that anyone ever watched her the way he did. With the intention to be allowed to see every little part of her being, with the intention to be allowed to see her for what she is, for what she really is.

‘Thomas’s blood,’ she spoke suddenly, ‘It cured Brenda.’

He looked at her for a moment, ‘You mean it healed her.’

‘No, it cured her. No other cure doses needed. It just did. Mary Cooper from what Vince told me took his blood and modified it to create the cure. She assumed it would end up the same as the incomplete cures we made in WICKED, but instead.’

‘Brenda doesn’t need more cures,’ finished Newt realizing where this was heading.

‘So Thomas’s blood could cure…’

‘Us, yes, but it’s not just the blood. It has to get modified in order to actually work. Mary, Teresa and the other scientist got killed or left in the city.’

He looked at the notes with formulas, ‘You’re trying to replicate it. Find the way Mary did it.’

She nodded before she looked back at the papers, ‘The problem is I’m not a scientist. I’m a nurse,’ she chuckled a bit bitterly, ‘I’m shameful to admit, but I’m not smart enough for this.’

Newt looked at her for a moment before he reached out and took her hand. She let him even if he felt her flinch for a moment, but she let him remaining her eyes on her papers.

‘What seems to be the problem?’ he asked slowly.

‘I don’t know…equipment? I cannot do proper modification with just _this_. Well, maybe I can but it will be extremely not safe. If I break the code wrongly I could literally cause something even dangerous than what is now. Right now, we are all in the state of nothing, but the new modification of the flare travels through air. Anyone and everyone who is not immune will end up changed. If I mess it up I could kill a healthy person. That would literally be something which the WICKED did.’

He was silent for a moment listening to what she said and thinking about it as well. They were on an abandon island. With the WICKED destroyed they might not even be any equipment she needs left, but without it she couldn’t make the cure.

Once again they were so close yet so far. He understood her frustration now. It was one thing to know you will die, but another to maybe have a shot at surviving. Furthermore, if you could save a couple of people in the process only to not be able to do it because you couldn’t.

‘Are you worried that people will see the WICKED in you if you fail?’ he asked, ‘If you create a cure that will hurt people.’

She smirked, ‘It’s what we did in WICKED. We hurt people claiming it was to save the world, but in the end we didn’t. We might as well almost kill it.’

He shook his head, ‘Not all of you, not you.’

She pulled her hand away at that, ‘You don’t know me. You don’t know WICKED not really. You don’t know who I really am.’

Somehow when she looked into his eyes it felt like it was the most honest she has ever been with him and herself.

‘Thanks for the food, but I want to work more, please,’ she said her guard back up.

He shook his head, ‘No Claudia, please I-’

He wasn’t sure what, but he didn’t want to leave her. She sighed, ‘Okay, but I really want to work. I want to try.’

She pushed the bowl away and brought the papers back to her.

Oddly, this gesture made it impossible for him continued the conversation or talk in general. She was very good in manipulating people if she wanted to. She had to be.

He finished his food and took his bowl, ‘I will go to work. You have to return that.’

He nodded at her bowl still filled with the food. She hadn’t said a word for a while and just wrote down formulas, ‘Okay.’

She didn’t even look up at him and he felt like punching himself for not saying more, not dragging her into a conversation not making her just damn it say something real again and not feel like she was WICKED. She wasn’t anymore even if she didn’t see it.

* * *

 

**Cora**

A couple of hours of more work, hunting mostly in Cora’s case, there was dinner and then just time to relax a bit before the new day. In Cora’s maze they only had snow, so hunting or trying to crack the maze was all she was good at. She and Sonya worked together for years so it was easier to hunt with her even if there were about fifteen people divided into groups of hunters now.

She liked it. She liked having to focus like that and be in constant movement. When she moved, hunt, and focus, she didn’t have to think about her feeling, Minho, WICKED. She didn’t have to think about anything just hunt. Just bring home food.

Now, they were fed and the work was over. She felt like she would grow mad if she didn’t find something to do now. She swallowed hard and went to look for something to do.

She spotted Minho again. He was with Newt and Thomas and the three seemed engaged in some serious conversation as neither of them looked too happy and at one point Newt stood up and threw his hands up visibly upset.

She turned around. She wouldn’t approach even if he was alone, but now she definitely couldn’t just walk to them.

Cora noticed Claudia sitting alone by the beach at one point. She was watching the ocean not paying attention to anyone around her. Just like with Minho, she was very familiar with the nurse.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked and the brown haired woman nodded, ‘Yes, just thinking about some things.’

Cora nodded and set down behind her. She pressed her back against hers looking up at the slowly getting darker sky. The nurse seemed distracted lately. She hid it with a polite smile, but Cora noticed her mind was drifting elsewhere too.

‘Do you think we can fix the world that they broke?’ asked Cora after a while of silence Claudia said, ‘No. You can’t fix something that can’t be fix you were get cut on the sharp pieces and go mad. The world doesn’t need to be fix but it can be rebuild. You can take the best of it and start fresh. Right now. You guys are the best of what is left in this world. You should have the right to start all over.’

Cora was quiet for a moment letting it all in before she said, ‘You’re one of us now too.’

She didn’t hear Claudia reply so she continued, ‘You’re one of us too now. You can tell yourself that you’re not but you help us and take care of us. That makes you a part of us. The good part of the world so I hope you’re not planning anything to like…not be here or leave. You can’t abandon us.’

Claudia turned around to her and brushed her hair. She was never affectionate so it freaked her out for a moment, but she let her. Confused and scared it was something serious.

The woman looked her into the eyes with a very steady look the kind that Cora wished she had and said, ‘You need to let it in. You need to find peace with yourself and let it in. You will never be happy until you do those two things. You need to accept that you are here now not in WICKED, not in the square, not in my apartment, but here,’ she leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Cora felt like crying as she felt like maybe sometime in the past a woman maybe Claudia’s age did that as well. Maybe she was her mother who loved her dearly and fought so she wouldn’t let her get taken by WICKED. The thought made her even sadder.

‘Find your peace wherever and however long that may take, but find it and don’t let go of it,’ she said as she leaned away, ‘It doesn’t matter if you end up with Minho. It doesn’t matter if you end up with anyone. That is not what this is about. It’s not about being complete with someone, by someone. It’s about finding yourself and holding on to that person. In the end she will be the only one you will have left, so please, Cora. Find yourself and accept your peace.’

Cora nodded feeling tears falling down her cheeks. Somehow, somehow she understood it. She got it.

She hugged Claudia and buried her face in her shoulder.

‘I will…’

She felt Claudia kissed her hair and inhale as if she was close to crying as well. Then she took a deep breath and leaned away from her, ‘I need a favour, Cora. You cannot say no and you cannot ask me about it. You just have to do it, okay? Please.’

* * *

 

**Claudia**

She was never the one to be the first one asleep. No she was usually one of the last people to  head to their sleeping quarters which was basically a roof and blankets or sleeping bags if they were lucky or just the ground itself if not. They worked so hard and every day and yet it still felt like there was so much to do.

She decided not to go today. In the whole Paradise there was only one place she could go which had some sort of containment. It was her little medical room. She and Cora stuffed all the things like new made files and tools into the boxes and put them behind the shed covering them so people wouldn’t notice and ask questions. It was close to bedtime so no one would even bother to wonder there.

They didn’t have much weapons, but those they did only several people were allowed to have access to. Hunters were one of them.

It wasn’t simple. Cora cried, begged, try to bargain, blackmail, but she was Cora, a good girl from the maze. She managed to trick her that it was the only way. She managed to convince her the way she convince herself every day when she was inside WICKED. She could convince everyone including herself. Always.

Today she allowed herself a moment with Newt. She allowed him to take her hand. If she could…if she really could she would allow herself to kiss him, maybe to pull him closer to herself….if she _really_ could she would allow herself to undress him and explore him in the medical room she was currently looked inside waiting with Cora for what will happen.

She came to the conclusion of two possible ways to break the code inside Thomas’s blood and make the cure. That was it. She narrowed it all down to two. Either one could be the right one, so all that was left was a test trail.

So here she was inside her medical room, with literally her last three cigarettes looked inside with Cora behind the door with a loaded gun. Oh, in case you were wondering, yes, she took the cure. She calculated five hours for some symptoms to appear if she was dying or turning or not.

She took her lighter. It still worked and lightened the first of her last cigarettes enjoying the taste of it. God, it had been weeks since she last had one. She stashed them and refused to take them until she would have to take a bullet in the head once she would be turning.

She pressed herself against the door to the medical room and silently smoked. The only light came from her lighter and now cigarette since they barricaded the windows as well.

She enjoyed every single blow cherishing it and thinking about everything which happened. She started to think about Jack, who she still hasn’t spoken with even when he came for his checkup, he looked upset for some reason.

She thought about all the other fifteen children. All of them alive and well now in the Paradise as well.

She thought about Cora, who asked her to save Minho because she wouldn’t go with him and how she couldn’t be with him now.

She thought about Gally who helped her get the kids out from the walls.

She thought about Minho who used to come to her room in the boat for talks and who slept with Cora in her bed.

She even chuckled at the thought now.

She thought about her talks with Jorge, Vince, Brenda and Jolanda. She thought about her she had to all by herself take a bullet from Thomas and took care of him with zero idea if she was doing good or not.

She thought about people she left back in the city. Other traitors. Angie who also stole from WICKED from time to time. She didn’t know Claudia did too, but she often gave her good info about the guard shifts, Charlie the man from the morgue who brought her the bodies, Tom the guard inside her building who made it easy to take the kids in and out of her apartment. Martha, the woman in the shop who arranged meetings with the rebels.

She thought about the dead as well. She thought about her uncle, the man who found her walking outside of the walls walking away from the city all alone, and who got her into the rescue business. She caressed her cross, he gave her as she thought about him. Old fool with a heart too big for the live inside the walls of the Last City.

She thought about Newt, and how she helped her get rid of Carter. She thought about their chat on the train and how he actually looked at her like he was very intrigued by her ability to lie to the patrol.

She let her ring finger brush her lower lip and thought about the time she kissed him for the first time in his life just because she wanted to. Just because. She also thought about she left him kiss her on the boat.

_His thumb softly stroked her wrist, and she felt the breath got stuck in her throat as her heart jumped. What the hell was he doing? She was no stranger to physical contact and sexual, but it was so long since she craved it…and it definitely never involved an eighteen year old boy with the longest fingers she ever saw._

_He titled his head a little bit to the side and she blindly followed his movement like a sunflower turns to the sun._

_'I see you,' he whispered and she felt her chest raising up and down as she started to breath fast._

_'I see you, Claudia.'_

_He leaned down and their lips touched. They didn't close their eyes. They kissed while looking at each other. When she was a teen her partner in school told her that she always had to close eyes because seeing someone's face up close was awkward. It didn't feel weird. It felt like nothing she ever felt before. It was like she saw him in a different way, and she had a feeling he did too. His lips were soft. He kissed so purely inexperienced. It felt the more honest than it ever did. She was never kissed so real. She was never kissed like this. One of his hands let go and went into her hair. She let her free palm rest against his chest. He might have looked skinny not muscled like other man, but he was very solid. She opened his mouth with her pressure and let her tongue feel the inside of his. He shivered under her hand before he repeated the motion. She closed her eyes than as she felt his tongue against hers. It was sensational._

No one ever told her that. No one ever figured her out like he did.

She closed her eyes remembered the feeling of his lips on herself. The feeling it brought. She was with a boy before, she was with men before. She was with people she wanted to be and once with a man she did not, but when Newt kissed her it was as if she wasn’t with anyone else before. It was as if all those previous times didn’t matter. It was like all that the only thing which matter was right there and then.

She smirked in the dark and continued to smoke. If she somehow survived this, she would kiss him again. Yes, she would dare herself to kiss him again and touch him and undress him and let herself explore his body...but more importantly she would let him see her. She would let him have a look inside her and really _see_ her.

It was hours until she finally caught the glimpse of the faded light coming from the windows. She survived.

She opened the door, ‘It’s morning.’

Cora stood up from some rock with the shotgun pointing at her. Good to know she actually did listen to her. Her hands were shaking though.

‘It’s morning,’ said Claudia again and smiled for the first time in what felt like years. She honestly smiled.

Cora watched her for a couple of moments before she lowered the gun and rushed to her, ‘You’re okay? No marks, or fever?’

She chuckled and pressed her hand against her forehead. She couldn’t believe it. She...she got it right. She tossed a fucking coin for the right choice and got it right. She didn’t die.

She looked at Cora who immediately hugged her, and the nurse hugged her back. She was sure she would be ready to die, but now...now she actually wanted to live. She realized she did the moment she started to let herself to think about the kiss.

She even started to cry a bit, ‘Shit.’

‘I’m was never so happy to see someone cry,’ said Cora and kissed her cheek before hugging her again.

‘Please, don’t ever ask me for a favour again.’

‘Promise.’

They stayed like that for a moment before Claudia breathed out and pulled away, ‘We need to pull all the things back before someone notices.’

Cora nodded and the two managed to put it all together before anyone would come. She still was in a trans from what happened. They had to go through the day as if nothing happened, but she felt like she wouldn’t be able to...she...

She survived and she would save all of the others.

* * *

 

**Newt**

He didn’t sleep at night. He spent the whole day after his visit with Claudia arguing with Thomas and Minho. He was upset the boy didn’t tell him about the cure, and he was pissed about Claudia’s behaviour toward the whole situation.

In the end, he was lying awake through the whole night thinking about it. It didn’t help that Claudia and Cora didn’t come to _bed_ all night probably sleeping in the medical shed.

He shouldn’t probably be like this, but he couldn’t help feeling so frustrated with her. Still, he needed to go and try to talk to her.

He was working with the others when someone a boy named, Corry ran to him and told him he had to go to the medical room.

He was a bit confused at first and then full on worried. He rushed there trying to convince himself it was fine. It would be fine, right?

How could it not be? Everything would be fine. She probably just wanted to talk to him.

On his way in he found her with Jorge who was pleasingly smiling at Claudia finishing some funny story as she was applying something on his arm and then putting a plaster over it.

‘Sounds like fun times. You can pull the sleeve down now,’ she told him with a small smile. She looked tired, but there was something. It was like the weight of the whole world was lifted out of her shoulders. If yesterday she was at her worst, right now she had to be at her best.

‘Okay, thanks doc,’ he said and went next to Newt out hitting his shoulder and smirking at him like he knew something Newt wasn’t aware of yet.

‘See, you doc, Newt,’ he went out and started to whistle.

‘What’s happening?’ he asked growing a bit upset from not knowing what was going on around him. Like he was the only one missing in on a joke.

‘I have the cure,’ she said coyly and urged him to sit down for her. He obliged, ‘Are you serious? The actual cure?’

‘Hopefully yes,’ she said, but she couldn’t keep the smile from her face. She looked like a little girl right now, and he couldn’t take his eyes out of her.

She prepared everything. She cleaned the needle while he raised his sleeve, ‘Did you already take it?’

‘Yes, don’t worry. You’re the last lucky patient today,’ she told him still smiling.

He didn’t even got bothered by the pain from the needle as she injected him watching as the serum went into his body and disappearing probably saving his life.

‘Sorry for the painful part.’

He swallowed. So he wouldn’t die in a month. He would live. He would actually live. He wasn’t now just working for others, but also from himself. He would live.

He opened his mouth not sure what to say as he didn’t even process it all yet, when the pretty brunette stopped inside of him and put her arms around his neck kissing him.

He was startled for a moment, not sure if he wasn’t dreaming now. He woke up went to work then got a cure that would save his life and the woman he had fallen in love was smiling like never before and now she was even kissing him on her own.

It was only a momentary thought since he instantly got sucked into the kiss as her tongue got into his mouth. He let his hands on her waist pulling her closer. It wasn’t soft like before, but it was something. It was longing. It was like when he waited the whole day to be able to go wash himself working hard under the sun, and then when he finally did it felt so good. This felt so good like that as well.

It felt so good to be kissing her after so long. It was like the world around him fade away again. It was just the two of them inside the little shed which was the medical room. There was no other noise around them, no other people, no other problems, just them.

It was just the two of them with arms around each other touching, holding, pushing against each other while they kiss grow familiar with each other. They knew each other, but now it was like they were finally getting to know each other properly.

He liked how petite she was against his hold. He liked how he could easily caress her waist while he sucked at her lower lip and titled this head a bit. He liked how good it felt to hold her like his.

One of her hand slipped into his hair and her fingers run through it. He loved the feeling of that. Then just as abrupt as it started it ended and she stepped away. Her lips once again swollen like last time as she was just there standing looking...looking very good with her lips and all around her lips red and in the need to fix her shirt.

She licked her lips, ‘We need to work.’

He nodded confused for a moment, ‘Yes, of course, sorry, that was...actually you did that.’

He just then remembered _she_ kissed him first.

‘Yes, I did, but we still have to work,’ she told him with a bit of a smirk.

He nodded again, ‘Right, sorry, I will stop by _later_?’

The smirk remained on her face, ‘Yes, I would like that.’

He stepped away from her again before he turned around and smiled at her, ‘I knew you would do it by the way. I knew you would find a way with the cure. If anyone could it would be you.’

She looked at him surprised for a moment. Actually surprised which was a funny look on her before she titled her head, ‘No, you didn’t, but thank you.’

He shook his head knowing he couldn’t win with her and just decided to take what he got and leave. He rushed to find Thomas and then Minho which already knew by now. The word got around.

* * *

 

**Minho**

Minho couldn’t sleep. It had been their first night on the island, and it was just impossible for him to fall asleep. It was…different. He was used to sleeping in the glades with the others. At the beginning there were a lot of boys sleeping close to each other. At first he had trouble to fall asleep with people snoring and sleep talking, but then it got easy. It was even melodic at times. Inside of the WICKED there was no noise, just the cold metallic sound of isolation and nothing. It was part of the reason why knocking with Cora made him so excited since it broke the terrible silence. Bottom line was he got used to the sound of nothing and loneliness while he was falling asleep. Now being surrounded by others seemed overwhelming to him.

He didn’t even want to sleep that much. As he looked to the side he spotted Cora wasn’t asleep as well. It was hard to see at first but the moon shined in a way which made him see that her eyes were opened.

She was lying on her side like him. She hadn’t slept in her bed last night. Neither her and the Doc came to sleep that night. The Doc was probably still working on the Cure formula which she finally cracked and Cora was probably keeping her company. Everyone was talking about the cure now. Everyone was glad for the twelve people who would live with them now, but it did hold a question. Many questions in fact. The cure was real. They had it. Would they try to help people who survived the fall of the walls? Would they try to bring here other folks and save them as well with it?

Ever since the attack on Doc Cora wouldn’t leave her side, and since Doc was the only one who could keep an eye out on Thomas’s injuries, she didn’t leave his side. Since Newt was sort of very protective of the both of them, he didn’t leave their side which resulted in Minho not staying far away either. Brenda was obviously there for Thomas which meant Jorge was near. Frypan stayed around as well. Even if it had been weeks they still remained like that

They were turning into one anxious and dysfunctional family for sure.

Either way, Cora was silent probably not wanting to wake up either little group. She was just looking at something in front of her before she stood up and started to walk away from the people. Their quickly made up shelter and into the beach.

He licked his lips not sure what to do before he stood up as well and followed her. He figured he would check on her. There was no harm in a friendly checkup on someone.

He rolled his eyes at how idiotic that sounded and just walked toward her.

Cora was sitting on the beach. It was cold on the island at night so her wearing only a shirt probably wasn’t the best idea.

He walked up to her making a bit noise, so that if she didn’t want him to come she would say so.

She didn’t.

She remained sitting without any motion on the beach, her back toward him.

He finally came to her side and looked at the night ocean in front of them. The waves were hitting the sand. It wasn’t a calm night, but it felt that way. This noise wasn’t so bad.

‘You can sit down if you want,’ she said and threw a casual glance at his side.

He nodded and sat down next to her, not too close though. Ever since the last night in Claudia’s apartment he was terrified of getting to close to her. He was worried she would tell him once and for all, she didn’t want to be close to him. She proved it enough of times, but to actually say it. He was sure that would kill him in a way not even WICKED could.

She kept on looking at him, ‘It feels to have so many people next to you. Some many noises,’ she admitted softly.

Minho nodded, ‘Yeah, it does. It feels…it doesn’t feel right,’ he agreed.

Cora watched him silently. She couldn’t keep her eyes out of him. She just watched him silently, with the only sound coming from the ocean and waves hitting the water and sand. He could feel her watching him. He didn’t know why she was doing that. He didn’t know what to do or say.

He finally decided to look back at her. She didn’t look away.

It was then that he realized they were alone on the beach with the rest still asleep. The same way they were in Claudia’s little apartment. In her soft bed. Just the two of them, in their little world.

Minho swallowed as he recognized something in Cora’s eyes. He reached his hand and tangled it in her short hair.

‘What are we doing?’

‘I don’t know.’

They kissed instantly. It was like two pieces of a puzzle which fell into place perfectly. How was it possible? How could they not be able to talk about what was happening but could do this? How could they fit here, in each others’ arms, with each others’ lips on each other, so _so_ perfectly?

Her hand went to his face gently touching his cheek. Her fingers were cold, but somehow he felt warm. She made him feel hot all over even with such a soft kiss. They were softly kissing each other for a moment. It was far more soften then what he remembered, but it had been a couple of weeks now. How could she be so cruel not to talk to him for days and yet kiss him so lovingly? How could she do that?

He let his fingers pull her hair a bit as she moved closer to him for better access. Kissing was something Minho liked a lot. He liked how strange it felt to have someone else’s tongue move against his and yet it felt good. It felt they way it should. It felt right. It felt so good. It felt like this what he should be doing always, every day, every moment. He didn’t think about WICKED when he kissed Cora. It was the only time he could close his eyes and not see a simulation, or feel the disgusting metallic taste which was always in his mouth when he woke up from one. He just…he felt like himself when he kissed her. He felt more himself than he ever did. The only other time he felt like himself was when he was running in the maze.

They broke the kiss to look at each other. Her eyes were so bright even in the darkness of the night. Her eyes were always a mystery to him. What was she thinking? Why was she quiet? Why was she acting like nothing happened? Why didn’t she say what was happening?

_Why?_

He leaned toward her and kissed her again, this time she pressed fully against him. Against his chest, his body almost completely ending up in his lap.

His hands reached under her shirt. She felt cold like she was freezing. He got doubts. She shouldn’t be out here in the cold. She should be inside with the rest under the covers. She should be asleep in the warm of their little home and not out here in the cold. He shouldn’t either. It will only get messier. He could feel it. He could feel the shadow slowly coming upon him again.

‘Maybe we should…’

‘Don’t stop,’ she cut him off, ‘Minho, please,’ she pleased with her hands inside his pants in an instant. He moaned against her neck. Okay, so they were doing _that_ again. He was going to fuck her again if that was what she wanted that is.

He kissed her neck biting it a bit knowing he could make a mark if he wanted to. He kind of did. He wanted to mark her a bit.

She sighed pleased from the contact of his lips on her skin as she started to stroke him a bit. He was hard. He was very much ready for her. He got himself off plenty of times now just thinking about her. Her kisses, moans, touches. The feeling of her around him as he pushed into her. So now when she was actually touching him, kissing and moaning, he didn’t even need to try too hard, he always ready was.

She stroked his member several times before she let him out. The cold air hit him hard for a moment before he felt her shifting a bit and in the next moment his member was once again that wonderful warm place inside her as she unbuttoned her pants and pulled her panties to the side.

Her arms went around his neck and into his hair while he took the liberty of kissing her again. The feeling of being inside her again was beyond word for Minho. He started to move before even making sure she was ready. He just couldn’t help himself. It had been too long. He just moved on instinct at this point as his mind being erased by the arousal and the feeling of her warmest around his cock.

She moaned into the kiss before she broke it and pressed her forehead against his shoulder still brushing his hair with her fingers almost painfully now.

They started to move in the same rhythm on the cold night on the beach just several feet away from a bunch of people sleeping. Yet nothing of that mattered as Minho was breathing in Cora’s hair while fucking her. This wasn’t like before. Before in the apartment he assumed it was something else, something more. He would say he and Cora made love back then, now it felt like it wasn’t love. It felt like it was desperation, need, lust and want. But he now felt that in that very moment it wasn’t love.

‘More,’ she moaned at one point, and he started to move faster, harder, just…more.

She shifted a bit leaning away from him as she started to feel the sensation finally building inside her as well, and she wanted more of it. They thrust matched, but they became more violent, more primal. Soon, he couldn’t take it anymore and just full on started to trust into her. The sensation from each trust pushed away any chevalier behaviour to ask her if it was okay, but the way she held onto him and meet his moves made it clear for his instincts that she liked it that way as well.

‘Cora…I’m…I won’t last long,’ he said as he felt himself very close.

‘Minho,’ she let out softly as her whole body trembled in his arms, and he felt her coming immediately following her groaning into her shoulder as he pushed her toward him again.

Both of them breathed harder than before, and despite the noise of the ocean’s waves he could pick up on the wild sound of her heartbeat close to his face.

He leaned his face and kissed her again tenderly while Cora kept on stroking his hair in a fond way.

They stayed like that for a very long time, with their intimate parts out in the open in the cold night on the sandy beach listening to the sounds of the waves and their own heartbeats, neither of them saying anything about what just happened.

 


End file.
